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MEMOIR 



OF 



JAMES BROWN; 



WITH OBITUARY NOTICES AND TRIBUTES 
OF RESPECT FROM PUBLIC BODIES. 



BY 



GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD. 
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fc£ 



BOSTON: 
PRIVATELY PRINTED. 
1856. 






Riverside, Cambridge, 
Printed bv H. O. Houghton & Co. 



PREFACE 



The late James Brown was a man so much 
respected by the community, and so much be- 
loved by his friends, that after the first sharp 
sense of the bereavement occasioned by his death 
had passed away, there was a general wish ex- 
pressed that some memorial of him might be 
prepared — not for the public, but for those who 
honored and loved him — which should contain 
a sketch of his life and a selection from the va- 
rious tributes and expressions which were called 
forth at the time of his death. To meet this 
wish, this volume has been prepared ; and it is 
commended by the editor to the friends of its 
lamented subject, in the assurance that they will 
feel that it has been prepared in the spirit of 
truth as well as the spirit of love. 

G. S. H. 

Boston, October 20, 1856. 



CONTENTS 



Life of James Brown i 

Obituary Notice from the Boston Daily Advertiser of 

March 20, 1855 71 

Obituary Notice from the Boston Atlas of March 13, 

i%55 89 

Extract from a Discourse delivered in the Unitarian 
Church at West Cambridge, on Sunday, March 18, 

i855 97 

Proceedings of the Boston Natural History Society 103 

Proceedings of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society.. 109 

Proceedings af the Trade Sale in New York 113 

Proceedings of the Booksellers of Boston 119 

Proceedings of the Trustees of the Boston Athen^um.. . . 123 

Donation to the Boston Athen^um in 1853 127 

Letter from George Livermore, Esq^ 133 



MEMOIR. 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 



James Brown was born in Acton, in Massachu- 
setts, May 19, 1800. He sprang from that class 
from which so much of the moral worth and intel- 
lectual distinction of the country has proceeded, — 
the rural population of New England, — made up 
of men who cultivate their own farms with their 
own hands, whose characters are strengthened by 
the daily exercise of economy and self-denial, but 
whose spirits are rarely darkened by hopeless pov- 
erty, and never crushed by the consciousness of 
inability to rise. His father, Joseph Brown, born 
in Stow, in Massachusetts, about 1^51 , was the 
youngest son of a numerous family that came from 
Rhode Island some years before the date of his 
son's birth. He was one of the first to offer his 
services to his country at the breaking out of the 
Revolution ; and at the battle of Bunker Hill he 
was wounded by a bullet, which passed through one 
of his legs and lodged in the other. When the 
1 



2 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

lead was extracted, he put it into his pocket, saying 
that they should have it again. He rejoined the 
army as soon as his wound was healed, and served 
till the end of the war ; rising to the rank of captain. 
He was with the northern division of the army, and 
took part in the operations which led to the capture 
of Burgoyne ; and there, and on other occasions, gave 
proof of courage and conduct. 

When the war was over, he settled upon a small 
farm in Acton, and resided there till his death, in 
1813. He held for many years the offices of con- 
stable and collector of taxes. His life was the com- 
mon life of a New England farmer and householder ; 
he worked upon his farm, read the newspapers, dis- 
cussed the political men and measures of his time, 
took part in town and parish affairs, faithfully per- 
formed the modest duties of the offices which he held ; 
and thus his days were usefully and happily filled. 

Capt. Brown was twice married. By his first 
wife, whose name was Dorothy Barker, he had five 
children, none of whom are now living. 

His second wife was Abigail Putnam, daughter of 
Deacon Samuel Putnam of Danvers, in Massachusetts. 
She was a woman of an excellent understanding, and 
had been well educated for that period. She had 
been employed for some time previous to her mar- 
riage as a teacher of youth ; a good preparation, it 
may be remarked, for household trusts and the care 
of a family. She was also a woman of much moral 
worth, a good wife and mother, and faithful to all 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 3 

the duties devolved upon her. She brought up her 
children in virtuous habits, and was especially earnest 
in imbuing them with a love of truth. She was 
accustomed to devote a part of every Sunday to the 
moral and religious teaching of her household — a 
good old New England custom which it is to be 
feared the establishment of Sunday schools has caused 
somewhat to decline. If so, these schools have proved 
to be by no means an unmixed good. 

The children of the second marriage were eight in 
number. Of these, two only now survive ; namely, 
Luke, born in 179-5, now residing in the western 
part of Massachusetts ; and Eunice, born in 1 80S, 
the wife of Mr. J. G. Lyon, residing at Rockton, in 
Illinois. 

James Brown was the fourth son and sixth child 
of the second marriage. Unlike his elder brothers, — 
unlike what would have been supposed by those who 
knew him in his robust and vigorous manhood, — he 
was a delicate and sickly child ; and on this account 
he was the object of peculiar care to an affectionate 
mother, and was in some degree exempted from the 
rougher labors of the farm. From his earliest years 
he showed a love of knowledge and a love of books ; 
and those of his friends who believe that " the child 
is father of the man," and who remember the pleasure 
he took in his well-chosen library, may deem it not 
unworthy of record that the first great grief of his 
childhood arose from the loss, in his third year, of a 
little picture-book, his solitary possession of the kind. 



4. LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

He could only be comforted by the gift of a new 
book, then not easily or readily procured. 

His early years were by no means destitute of 
the means of intellectual improvement. Besides such 
instruction as he could pick up at the district school, 
taught in the winter by a male, and in the summer by 
a female teacher, he had access to a good circulating 
library, which was kept at the minister's house ; and 
he was a diligent reader of such books as were 
suited to his age. There was also the society of an 
intelligent and well-educated mother, who had among 
her own possessions a closet full of books ; among 
which those who are conversant with the literary 
tastes of the last century will not be surprised to hear 
were Young's Night Thoughts and Hervey's Medi- 
tations. 

Nor should we overlook, in summing up the influ- 
ences which acted upon his mind and character, those 
elements which grow out of the very constitution of 
New England society, and were found, in a greater 
or less degree, in every New England town. Life 
was more quiet and monotonous fifty years ago than 
it now is ; there were fewer books and fewer news- 
papers ; the means of communication were far inferior ; 
but everywhere there was the pulse of vitality and 
the consciousness of belonging to a growing and 
progressive community. The newspaper arrived two 
or three times a week, and the stage-coach kept up 
a regular communication with the metropolis. State 
and national politics were discussed with partisan zeal, 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 5 

and town affairs were often fruitful in matters which 
led to controversy and debate. Though books were 
fewer, and newspapers more meagre than now, they 
were both read and re-read with a patient deliberation 
which is now becoming obsolete. All these things 
would act upon the mind and character of an intelli- 
gent and observing boy, who had eyes to see, and 
ears to hear, what was going on around him — who 
would listen to the discussions in town and parish 
meetings, and hear his elders talking about the move- 
ments of Bonaparte and the policy of Jefferson, and 
gunboats, and the embargo, and the orders in council, 
and the Berlin and Milan decrees — and though all 
that fell upon the ear was not comprehended, it was 
none the less calculated to quicken the faculties and 
keep the life-blood of the mind in circulation. 

James Brown was a diligent reader of such books 
as he could procure ; and he read them understand- 
ingly. His sister, Mrs. Lyon, remembers his having, 
when only eight or nine years old, prepared a full 
abstract of Rollin's account of the seven wonders of 
the world, and of adding to it a description of all the 
other remarkable objects he had read of, which seemed 
to him worthy of being placed in the same class. 
This was read aloud to the family circle in the evening 
and received with great favor. 

A gentleman, now living in Boston, a native of 
Acton, and a school-fellow of James Brown, has given 
me some recollections of him in his boyhood. He 
describes him as having been a general favorite from 



6 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

his amiable disposition and the sweetness of his tem- 
per. At school, he was a good though not a brilliant 
scholar ; and was especially remarkable for the correct- 
ness of his deportment ; never having been punished, 
and rarely reproved. He had a vein of grave drollery, 
and was a good mimic; frequently entertaining the 
boys by the exercise of this power. His sense and 
enjoyment of the ludicrous went with him to the end 
of life, but in his maturer years he laid aside the habit 
of mimicry. 

My informant also remembers him as a boy of 
rather slender and loosely compacted frame — not 
possessed of much bodily activity — and never taking 
a leading part in the athletic sports of early life. 
Although of a cheerful spirit, he was rather grave and 
contemplative, but never dependent upon others for 
happiness or occupation. 

From his farm, and the proceeds of the town offices 
which he held, Capt. Brown was able to maintain his 
family in comfort and respectability; but upon his 
death, in 1813, the widow's means were not enough 
to enable her to keep all her household together ; and 
the younger sons were obliged to go from home in 
search of employment and subsistence. James went 
to live with a farmer in Acton, and remained with 
him for some time ; taking part in such farm labors as 
were suited to his years and strength. It was while 
living with Mr. Noyes that his first visit to Boston 
was made ; — an event which was looked forward to 
with great interest, and long remembered from the 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. J 

distinctness of the impressions which it left. Some- 
time in the year 1815, he went to Cambridge, in 
search of employment ; probably attracted to that 
place by his love of books, and a sort of undefined 
feeling that it was something to breathe even the air 
of learning; and perhaps by a faint hope that some 
of the crumbs of knowledge which fell from that 
ample board might drop into his lap. 

Immediately upon arriving in Cambridge, he found 
a situation as a domestic in the family of the late 
Professor Hedge. The fastidious spirit of our times 
and our country shrinks from the contemplation of 
a position like this, as if there were something in 
it of humiliation and pain ; but such a feeling flows 
from the weakness, and not the strength, of our 
nature. The relation of master and servant is one 
which the world is not likely to outgrow; and like 
every other relation between man and man, it may be 
elevated and dignified by the spirit which animates, 
and the motives which govern it. In the present 
case, we may be assured that all its duties, on both 
sides, were faithfully discharged. Young Brown was 
a conscientious and intelligent lad, whose spirit was 
docile and whose temper was without a flaw. It need 
hardly be said to those who knew the late Dr. Hedge 
at all, that he was a just, a good, and a benevolent 
man ; and those who knew him well were aware that 
under a plain exterior he concealed much tenderness 
and delicacy of feeling. Every member of his 
household felt the influence and encouragement of 



8 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

his gentle and benignant nature ; and the friendless 
youth from the country began at once to breathe the 
genial atmosphere of home. By the surviving 
members of Dr. Hedge's family he is well remem- 
bered as a well-grown stripling, but of a slender 
frame and pallid complexion, bearing the aspect of 
delicate health, and holding out no promise of that 
vigorous tread, erect bearing, and ample presence 
which he afterwards attained. He was perfectly 
amiable in temper, irreproachable in moral conduct, 
of an obliging disposition and cheerful spirit, and 
especially remarkable for his insatiable love of 
knowledge — reading everything in the shape of a 
book he could lay his hands upon, and by the ener- 
gies of a healthy mind drawing nutriment from all. 

Dr. Hedge himself, seeing his taste and aptitude 
for knowledge, gave him private instruction in mathe- 
matics and the Latin language ; and the plan of his 
entering college was entertained and discussed, and 
might have been carried into effect but for a subse- 
quent change in his position and prospects. 

The whole period of Mr. Brown's residence with 
Dr. Hedge, extending through three or four years, 
was highly favorable to the growth of his mind and 
character. The light services required in a simple 
household left him both time and energy to gratify his 
love of knowledge ; and in this praiseworthy pursuit 
he had not merely the sympathy, but the aid of his 
employer. Living too under the roof of a scholar, 
he was never without the means of obtaining books. 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 9 

the first want of an expanding mind. But in a gentle 
and sensitive nature like his these intellectual advan- 
tages would have borne but little fruit, had they not 
been attended, as they were, with a spirit of kindness, 
with a readiness to acknowledge cheerful and faithful 
service, and with a considerate thoughtfulness which 
laid no needless burdens upon him. In Dr. Hedge's 
family he was never tried with unreasonable requi- 
sitions, or capricious exactions, or harsh language ; 
and always had the assurance that so long as he did 
his duty he might rely upon their friendly regard and 
substantial good-will. 

Mr. Brown's feeling and judgment upon this part 
of his life were characteristic of the simple dignity 
of his nature. He never wished to conceal it, or keep 
it out of sight, or remove it from the contemplation 
of his own thoughts as if there was anything humili- 
ating or mortifying in it. Nor, on the other hand, had 
he, in regard to it, that subtle vanity which Dickens 
so well delineates in the character of Mr. Bounderby, 
which delights to make a coarse and noisy proclama- 
tion of early disadvantages, and to find food for self- 
esteem in the contrast between present glories and 
past shadows. It was with Mr. Brown an episode in 
his life — no more and no less — not to be put out 
of sight and out of mind as something to be ashamed 
of; and not to be nauntingly displayed in order to 
challenge admiration and applause. 

Sometime during the year 1818, as Mr. Brown 
was walking through the streets of Cambridge, on a 



10 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

Sunday, he was met by the late Mr. William Hilliard, 
and asked by him if he would like to enter his service 
as a salesman and general assistant. Such a pro- 
posal was a piece of good fortune as unexpected as it 
was gratifying ; and it was very gladly accepted. For 
this offer on the part of Mr. Hilliard, Mr. Brown was 
indebted to the thoughtful and considerate kindness of 
Dr. Hedge, who, seeing the moral worth and intellect- 
ual tastes of his young protege, had warmly recom- 
mended him to Mr. Hilliard as an assistant, when- 
ever any vacancy should occur in his business. Mr. 
Hilliard was at that time largely and actively engaged 
as a publisher and bookseller. He was an intelligent 
and estimable man ; and had his love of money and 
care of small things been equal to his general capacity 
and enterprise, he could hardly have failed to accumu- 
late an ample property. 

Mr. Brown at once went into Mr. Hilliard's service, 
and entered upon an untried occupation. His position 
was at first rather difficult and perplexing. Besides 
opening and shutting the store, going on errands, 
attending to the wants of customers, he was employed 
during a portion of every day in pressing the sheets 
that came from the printing-office ; a labor that tasked 
severely his physical powers. Mr. Hilliard spent a 
portion of every day in Boston ; and his former assist- 
ant, who had been expected to initiate Mr. Brown into 
his new duties, immediately left his post, without 
warning, as soon as the new comer arrived ; and he 
was thus left to grope his way, with very imperfect 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. \\ 

guidance, over an unknown path. But his natural 
quickness, aided by resolute industry, qualified him to 
meet the claims made upon him ; and his duties were 
soon fulfilled with ease to himself and satisfaction to 
his employer. 

Mr. Brown's engaging in the service of Mr. Hil- 
liard was the decisive fact of his life, and from that 
moment his progress, though slow at first, was sure 
and uninterrupted. 

But there were no unexpected incidents, no sudden 
turns, no lucky windfalls in his career. It was all 
substantially moulded of the same elements ; each por- 
tion bound by natural relation to what had gone before. 
His subsequent prosperity was as much the inevitable 
result of the qualities which he showed in the very 
first week of his engagement with Mr. Hilliard, as the 
oak is of the acorn. He had found an occupation 
which suited his tastes and for which his faculties and 
capacities were singularly well fitted. He was fond of 
books ; he liked not merely to read them but to see 
them, to handle them, and to have them about him. 
He was orderly and methodical in his habits ; never 
idle, and never in a hurry ; never permitting his busi- 
ness to get ahead of him ; possessed of a most reten- 
tive memory, always knowing whether he had a book 
or not, and if he had it, able to put his hand upon it 
in the dark. 

For some years his principal occupation was that 
of selling books at retail. The success of a salesman, 
as is well known among men of business, depends 



12 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

mainly upon certain natural endowments which may 
be improved by culture, but can neither be taught 
nor learned ; they are innate, and dependent upon 
organization and temperament. But in a person who 
sells books, and thus deals with scholars and men of 
letters, these qualities must be more nicely tempered 
and harmonized, than in one who sells shoes or domes- 
tic goods to country customers. In Mr. Brown the 
elements were happily mingled for this object. He 
was born with the feelings and instincts of a gentle- 
man. He had an unerring power of observation and 
a delicate tact that never failed him. His manners 
were winning because they were the natural language 
of a good heart and a sweet temper ; and their effect 
was increased by the open and ingenuous expression 
of his countenance. But his success in this depart- 
ment came mainly from those sources from which the 
whole success of his life was derived — from his entire 
truthfulness and perfect honesty. Nothing is more 
difficult to assume than the simplicity of truth. An 
artful man may make his manners fine, but hardly 
natural. But every one who dealt with Mr. Brown 
felt that he was dealing with a thoroughly honest man, 
and that every word that fell from him could be taken 
at its full value, with no qualifications and reservations. 
In his intercourse with those who came to buy of him 
there was no alloy of coaxing or wheedling or fawn- 
ing ; no subtle flattery ; no politic use of weaknesses ; 
no disingenuous concealments ; and no loud vaunting 
of the merits of his merchandise. 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. \g 

During the period of his residence in Cambridge, 
Mr. Brown, though zealous in business, was by no 
means ascetic in his habits ; but he gladly sought the 
society of congenial friends, and did not deny himself 
such amusements as did not interfere with the main 
objects on which his thoughts were fixed. He founded 
a sort of social meeting which, in imitation of a well- 
known society in college, was called the Hasty-pudding 
Club, at the meetings of which a subject was discussed 
and afterwards the members partook of a simple 
repast. On one occasion the subject of discussion 
was : " How may eminence in life be attained ; " and 
after the other members had given their views, Mr. 
Brown took a piece of chalk from the table, and made 
a mark on the wall so high that no others could reach 
it, saying at the same time, " make your chalk high 
enough." 

At one time he was in the habit of meeting with 
some of his friends to make a thorough study of the 
principles of grammar. He also read much, and his 
favorite reading lay among the English poets. 

He occasionally indulged himself in shooting and 
fishing, but never allowing his amusements to encroach 
upon the hours of business. He thus acquired some 
practical knowledge of ornithology, and was able to 
assist his friend Mr. Nuttall in the preparation of his 
work on the birds of America. On one of these 
sporting occasions, an incident occurred which showed 
his self-possession and presence of mind. He was 
with his friend Mr. N. J. Wyeth, his usual companion 



14 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

on these expeditions. They were obliged to cross a 
decayed dam. Mr. Wyeth got safely over, but Mr. 
Brown slipped and fell into the water, where it was of 
considerable depth. He disappeared for a moment, 
but soon emerged dripping like a water-god ; and as 
he scrambled up the bank, his friend noticing that he 
had his boots in one hand and his gun in the other, 
asked him why he did not let them go ; to which Mr. 
Brown, with the utmost composure replied : " Because 
I thought I should want to use them again." 

At this period of his life, as soon as the burden of 
business was removed, he was overflowing with animal 
spirits and as full of frolic as a schoolboy on a holi- 
day. His joyous temperament sometimes broke out in 
practical jokes ; but they were of a kind that never 
wounded the feelings, nor left a sting in the memory. 

Mr. Brown continued in the service of Mr. Hilliard 
till 1826, constantly growing in the confidence of his 
employer, and gradually assuming a larger share of 
the management of the business. In that year the 
relations between them were substantially, though not 
apparently changed, by the formation of a copartner- 
ship. The articles were dated September 4th ; and the 
copartnership was to continue for five years. 

In May, 1 832, soon after the copartnership with Mr. 
Hilliard had expired by limitation, Mr. Brown formed 
a new connection with the late Mr. Harrison Gray and 
Mr. John H. Wilkins, under the style of Hilliard, 
Gray and Company. In June, 1832, a copartnership 
was formed between Mr. Lemuel Shattuck, on the one 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 15 

part, and the firm of Hilliard, Gray and Company, on 
the other, under the style of Brown, Shattuck and 
Company, which had its place of husiness in Cam- 
bridge ; and its management was under the personal 
superintendence of Mr. Brown. In August, 1832, 
Mr. Wilkins withdrew from the firm of Hilliard, Gray 
and Company, and Mr. Gray and Mr. Brown contin- 
ued to carry on the business under the same name, 
until March, 1833, when Mr. Charles Browne was 
admitted a member of the firm, no change taking place 
in its designation. The firm of Brown, Shattuck and 
Company continued till sometime in the year 1834. 

In August, 1 837, Mr. James Brown withdrew from 
the firm of Hilliard, Gray and Company, and entered 
into copartnership with Mr. Charles C. Little, under 
the style of Charles C. Little and Company, 1 the new 
firm taking the law books and foreign books of 
Hilliard, Gray and Company. In this business con- 
nection Mr. Brown continued till his death ; Mr. Au- 
gustus Flagg, and his son, Mr. James Perry Brown, 
subsequently becoming members of the firm. These 
dates and facts complete the record of Mr. Brown's 
business life. We turn back to resume his personal 
biography, and to set down those events by which his 
character was ripened, his mind expanded, and his 
affections quickened and deepened. 

1 The name of the firm always known as Little and Brown. The 

appeared in the imprint of books present style is Little, Brown and 

as Charles C. Little and James Company. 
Brown ; and it was also popularly 



16 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

In May, 1825, he married Miss Mary Anne Perry, 
daughter of Mr. James Perry of West Cambridge, a 
lady to whom he had been for sometime attached, and 
with whom he united his fortunes, as soon as he felt 
that his position and prospects justified his assuming 
the care of a family. A nature and a heart like his 
would be sure to form an early but not a rash mar- 
riage. His affectionate temper, and his need of quick 
and constant sympathy, drew him strongly towards 
domestic life; and for domestic life he was well fit- 
ted by his loving and gentle spirit, his refinement of 
feeling, his taste for quiet pleasures, and his perfect 
good temper. In this last quality — so large an ele- 
ment in the happiness of a happy home — Mr. Brown 
could hardly be surpassed. There are men who, by 
vigorous exercise of the habit of self-command, can 
repress the sallies of an impatient spirit; but the 
effort cannot be concealed from an observant eye, and 
the enforced virtue has not the grace and sweetness 
of the natural growth. Mr. Brown had no rebellious 
impulses to subdue, for the pure gold of his temper 
never contracted the slightest stain of irritability, and 
his gentle and gracious bearing had all the charm of 
spontaneous movement. 

Mr. Brown resided in Cambridge from the time 
of his marriage till 18^9, when he removed to West 
Cambridge, and took a house upon Wellington Hill, 
now occupied by his second son, Mr. Edward Wyeth 
Brown. In 1835, he came into Boston and lived for 
a year or two in a house upon Washington Place, 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. \*f 

Fort Hill, but his love of rural pleasures and rural 
occupations was too strong to make him contented 
in a city, and he returned to his former residence 
upon Wellington Hill, where he remained till 1840, 
when he moved into the house in Watertown which 
he built, and in which he continued to reside till his 
death. 

The children of his marriage were five in num- 
ber, three sons and two daughters ; and they formed 
an affectionate and a happy household. Mr. Brown 
was a kind and indulgent father ; winning from the 
first the confidence of his children ; never repelling 
their young hearts by coldness or sternness, nor 
darkening them by the shadow of fear. Nor did 
he live — as is often the case with men absorbed by 
the cares of a prosperous and increasing business — 
in practical ignorance of the minds and characters 
of his children. He was a conscientious as well as 
a loving father, and faithfully discharged the trusts 
of a parent by his care as well as his tenderness. 

When he first set up housekeeping he had very 
little property and but a moderate income, and was 
obliged to live frugally and in a plain way. But 
love makes all sacrifices light; and looking at life 
from the beginning to the end, it is beyond question 
a gain, in happiness even, to start under the rule of 
strict economy and self-sacrifice. Hope is the sun- 
shine of the heart ; and those young people who begin 
life with a free gratification of wants, and a full 
sense of prosperity, lose the fine relish that comes 
2 



18 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

with each new and hard-earned indulgence, and the 
delight of adding to another's pleasure by self-sacri- 
fice and renunciation. They may well be pitied for 
not knowing the enjoyment of gradual progress 
through their own power and perseverance. 

Mr. Brown's business career was uniformly pros- 
perous. For some years after his marriage his 
progress was not very rapid ; nor were his gains 
large. He was not of a scheming and speculating 
turn : the foundations of his success were laid slowly 
and deeply in industry, economy, sagacity, and a 
rigid adherence to plain and safe rules in the con- 
duct of business. He was thus spared the corrod- 
ing anxieties and the wasting cares that haunt the 
path, and murder the sleep, of reckless and daring 
spirits. In common with the whole business com- 
munity, he passed through more than one of those 
periods of pecuniary pressure which recur from time 
to time in our country ; and there were doubtless 
moments of grave examination into his affairs, not 
unmingled with uneasiness ; but he never suffered 
serious embarrassment or long-continued perplexity. 
The clouds never darkened round him so as to shut 
out the light. And from the time of his entering 
into partnership with Mr. Little, success flowed in 
upon him in a deeper and broader stream. In the 
management of the business of this new firm each 
partner found the distinct sphere which was in unison 
with his tastes and his capacities ; neither interfering 
with the other, and both working harmoniously to- 
gether. 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 19 

In seeking the causes which led to Mr. Brown's 
success in business, — and which contributed to the 
success of the copartnerships of which he was a 
member, — we find them in a combination of qualities 
not so rare in themselves as in their harmonious 
union. They may be briefly summed up by saying 
that he had the tastes of a scholar, the manners of 
a gentleman, and the habits of a man of business. 
He was born with the instincts and perceptions of 
good breeding; and he had nothing to learn or to 
forget in order to qualify him to stand in the high- 
est social place. He was born, too, with a strong 
love of knowledge, and consequently a strong love 
of books ; and having had more than common 
opportunities in his youth for indulging this taste, 
he began active life with an amount of literary and 
miscellaneous acquisition not common among men 
who have not had what is usually termed a liberal 
education. These acquirements were of daily use 
to him as a publisher and a seller of books. He 
understood books as a scholar, as a bibliographer, 
and as a tradesman ; he knew their substantial 
worth, their factitious or artificial value in the eyes 
of collectors, and their popular estimation. But 
these scholarly accomplishments would have been of 
doubtful value had they not been tempered and con- 
trolled by a sound practical understanding. Book- 
sellers and book publishers sometimes fail of success 
because they love books not wisely but too well ; 
because they push the scholar's tastes and habits 



£0 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

into the region of pure business, and regard the 
contents of their shelves more as a library than as 
a stock in trade. Mr. Brown was a man of accu- 
rate and careful habits of business as well as a lover 
of books. These habits did not, perhaps, so much 
belong to his original constitution as did his literary 
tastes, but a strong sense of duty and a resolute 
will gave them all the energy of natural impulse. 

The principal part of the business of the firm of 
Little and Brown consisted in the publication and 
sale of law books, and in the importation and sale 
of foreign books. Their publications in general 
literature have been, for the most part, of a grave, 
solid, and substantial character, such as works in 
theology, history, politics, political economy, and bio- 
graphy — rarely meddling with those lighter and 
more ephemeral publications that come with the 
leaves of spring and go with the leaves of autumn. 
In their sales of law books they were, it is be- 
lieved, the first to apply that well-known rule in 
political economy, that in articles of permanent de- 
mand the increase of purchasers is greater, in pro- 
portion, than the decrease of price. It was for- 
merly the usage to print a small edition of a law 
book, and to sell the copies at a high price — a 
custom transmitted from England, and there founded 
on the limited demand presented by a bar neither 
numerous nor rapidly increasing. But Messrs. Little 
and Brown had the sagacity to perceive that the 
lawyers in our country were a numerous body, that 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. • 21 

their increase would keep pace with the progress of 
the country ; and they drew the ready inference that 
if they could offer them at three dollars such books 
as had formerly cost five, the difference in price 
would be more than made up in the difference in 
sales. The result justified their enterprise ; and thus 
they and the members of the legal profession were 
alike benefited. For obvious reasons, the price of 
law books must always be more than that of works 
in general literature ; but in the legal publications 
of Messrs. Little and Brown the difference is less 
than that which the profession were previously accus- 
tomed to. 

The importation and sale of foreign books was 
the department of their business which came under 
Mr. Brown's especial control. For this he was par- 
ticularly well fitted by his tastes and accomplishments. 
He knew the worth and the value of books ; and he 
had an intuitive sagacity in discerning what the 
public wanted. This branch of their business was 
much increased during the latter years of his life, 
and after his successive visits to Europe. His tem- 
perament was hopeful and sanguine ; and he bought 
very largely both of old works and new editions. 
The result did credit to his judgment and discern- 
ment ; but his latest purchases were on a scale be- 
yond which he could hardly have gone with safety. 

During the last fourteen years of his life, Mr. 
Brown made five voyages to Europe. With the ex- 
ception of his second visit, in 184*5, he had always 



22 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

the companionship of one or more members of his 
family. The formation or extension of his business 
connections was the main inducement to these excur- 
sions, and London and Paris were his chief points 
of interest ; but he allowed himself time to visit 
many places interesting from associations or attrac- 
tive from natural beauty. He saw England and 
Scotland more thoroughly and deliberately than most 
American tourists ; and he visited Ireland, Holland, 
Belgium, North Germany, the Rhine country, Swit- 
zerland, and parts of France. These brief trips to 
Europe were sources of high enjoyment to him. 
His good health and his stock of animal spirits made 
him sensitive to the pleasures of travelling and in- 
different to its discomforts. He took great delight 
in examining places and objects familiar to him in 
books. His simple, cordial manners, and the un- 
affected worth and intelligence which they expressed, 
made him everywhere welcome; and many of his 
transatlantic acquaintances ripened into enduring and 
valuable friends. The London publishers and book- 
sellers with whom he was brought in contact — a 
shrewd and observant body of men — at once recog- 
nized his claims as a man and as a man of busi- 
ness ; and the favorable relations he established with 
them were due not merely to the ample pecuniary 
credit he commanded, but also to the confidence in- 
spired by his presence. 

His first visit to Europe was in 1841. He was 
absent about four months ; leaving Boston in June 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. Qg 

and returning in October. He was accompanied by- 
Mrs. Brown ; and on this account, and from the fact 
that his children were too young for any thing more 
than brief communications, there are no memorials 
of this tour to be found among his papers. Much 
of his time and thoughts were given to business, and 
to the establishment of his relations with European 
publishers. During this visit he made the acquaint- 
ance of that eminent publisher, the late Mr. John 
Murray. By this gentleman — a sagacious observer 
of men and manners — Mr. Brown was treated with 
a cordial and hospitable kindness which was in itself 
a compliment, and which was always warmly and 
gratefully remembered. His youngest son — born 
after his return — received the name of John Murray, 
in honor of his transatlantic friend. 

Upon his return home, Mr. Brown wrote a brief 
account of his tour to a friend in the western coun- 
try. His letter appeared, but without the writer's 
name, in the Cincinnati Daily Republican of October 
27, 1841, and is here reprinted. 

Boston, October 17, 1841. 
We left Boston in the Caledonia, on the first of 
June, and reached Halifax in forty hours. Halifax 
harbor looks pretty as you approach it, but is as 
dull a city within, as was ever built of shingles or 
inhabited by Blue Noses. We remained only a few 
hours, and set sail with a fine wind and smooth sea 
for Liverpool. Excepting some trifling sea-sickness 



24< LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

we were well, and enjoyed the remainder of the 
voyage as well as any one can on shipboard; for 
after all it is a most uncomfortable life at sea, and 
it was well said that "it is a poor home that is not 
better than a ship." On the eleventh morning we 
saw Mizen Head, in Ireland, and the next the shores 
and mountains of Wales, and on the thirteenth were 
safely landed in Liverpool. This is a fine city, full 
of activity, and about the size of New York. On 
the morning of the fourteenth, we took our seats in 
the cars, and, passing through a most delightful 
country, arrived at London, a distance of two hundred 
and twenty miles, in the evening. In the course of 
the day, we went through Birmingham and several 
other large manufacturing towns ; but the charm of 
the ride was the rich agricultural country, and espec- 
ially the Vale of Aylesbury, a spot unequalled for 
rural beauty perhaps in the world. 

I made direct for the London Coffee House, Lud- 
gate Hill, of course. Besides being one of the 
best houses in London, it is the place where Frank- 
lin lived, and I sat in the very stall where he and 
Strahan used to dine and hold their political discus- 
sions. This house, too, is within a stone's throw of 
St. Paul's, Paternoster Row, Fleet Street, and in 
fact is in the very heart of Old London. I called 
several times at Dr. Johnson's old home in Bolt 
Court, and drank a glass of ale to his memory. 
In the same dingy, dirty lane, is the Printing Office 
where Franklin worked journeywork, if you know 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 25 

what that means. The building is occupied for the 
same purpose now. I looked into Wills and But- 
ton's also, and did not forget the Boar's Head, nor 
the Saracen's, made classic by Dickens, as the haunt 
of the hero of Dotheboys Hall. Paternoster Row 
I was greatly disappointed in. Instead of a fine 
street, full of splendid booksellers' shops, it is a nar- 
row lane (not even a thoroughfare) barely admitting 
a carriage, dirty, dark, full of foul odors, gloomy, and 
disgusting. It is for the most part filled with book- 
sellers ; but what gives a character to the whole 
lane is a large tallow-chandler's establishment, and the 
beef market. It resembles in size Bromfield Street, 
in Boston, but is perhaps twenty rods longer, and 
narrower than any of your streets in Cincinnati, that 
I saw last winter. In this mean street, however, as 
you know, are sold more fine books than in any 
other in the world. Here, too, booksellers with their 
families live, and here, as elsewhere in London, you 
meet the bookseller's wife assisting in the labors of 
the shop, — busy with the pen, or assorting parcels 
for distant customers, and in the retail shops, dis- 
cussing the comparative value of the different editions 
of Bayle and Domat ; and if you call to dine with 
her, you will find her at home also in all matters 
which with us are thought to be a woman's exclu- 
sive province — the management of household affairs. 
The bookselling business is much more subdivided 
than with us. Law booksellers sell only law books. 
Medical booksellers only medical books, &c. None 



26 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

of them keep what with us is called " an assort- 
ment." If you want several books, you call on your 
bookseller and give him a list, and he procures them. 
No single bookseller, as with us, pretends to keep 
every book, new and old. 

At a dinner given by one of the trade, I became 
acquainted with Mr, Murray, the justly celebrated 
publisher. He is now about seventy, but still in 
good health and the full enjoyment of a green old 
age. I afterwards dined with him and his family 
at Albemarle Street, and spent a Sunday with them 
at Twickenham, at a delightful country residence on 
the Thames, within a few rods of Pope's house, and 
ten minutes walk from Strawberry Hill, where 
Horace Walpole wrote his charming letters. In the 
afternoon we rode down the Thames to Richmond, 
walked over the celebrated Park, and enjoyed the 
richest view in the world — the valley of the Thames, 
Windsor Castle, a glimpse of the Gothic towers of 
Eton College, and the thousand delightful palaces 
and country seats which are imbedded in the deep 
green fields and woods of Old England. 

Mr. Murray has published for most of the cele- 
brated authors of England, from the time of Sheridan 
to the present, and he has a rich fund of anecdote 
which he might, and I hope will, embody in a book, 
that would be as interesting a one as has been given 
to the world in that eventful period in literary his- 
tory. He told me many which I have not time or 
room to give you. He doubtless knows as much of 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. QJ 

Byron's private life as any other person alive, and 
his publications are among the best, and their style 
infinitely superior to that of any of his contempo- 
raries. His splendid editions of Lockhart's Ballads 
and of Childe Harold, now just before the public, 
bear full testimony to this fact. He has a delightful 
family, and lives in the exercise of that hospitality 
peculiar, I believe, to Old England — the perfect per- 
sonification of the "Old English Gentleman," — the 
finest character on earth. 

Bound on business, I had not time to go into the 
details of England. I went to Eton College, and 
Windsor, and Virginia Water ; to Oxford, Hampton 
Court, and Bushy Park and Palace ; Chelsea, Green- 
wich, &c. ; to Edmonton, and in the city spent a day 
or two visiting Westminster Abbey, the Tower, the 
Houses of Parliament, Westminster Hall, the Courts, 
the Tunnel under the Thames, the Galleries, &c, 
&c. After passing five weeks in London, we went 
by Southampton to Havre, and thence up the Seine, 
by Rouen, to Paris ; remained ten days ; thence by 
diligence through Coutrai, Cambrai, &c, to Leige ; 
thence to Brussels, Antwerp, Waterloo, &c. ; thence 
to Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, and then up the Rhine 
to Ehrenbreitstein, Coblentz, and Mayence ; thence to 
Frankfort-on-the-Maine, which was the end of our 
journey. From that place we retraced our steps to 
the Rhine, and down through Holland to Rotterdam ; 
remained there a day, and took steamer to London ; 
thence to York, Newcastle, Alnwick Castle, &c, to 



28 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

Edinburgh and Glasgow. From Glasgow I went to 
Ayrshire and saw the birthplace of Burns, followed 
Tarn O'Shanter from Ayr to the Bridge of Doon, 
by old Kirk Alloway ; saw the grand monument to 
Burns on the banks of Doon, &c. ; returned by An- 
drossan to Fleetwood in England ; thence to Liver- 
pool, and here I am. 

Though driven by business, I saw much, and 
enjoyed myself to the full extent of my capacity. 
Within the last eight months, and since I saw you 
in Cincinnati, I have travelled at least fifteen thou- 
sand miles, and seen all sorts of "life and manners," 
from the interior of Arkansas to Paris ; from the 
swamps of Georgia to the gardens of England and 
Belgium. I can hardly realize that I have gathered 
cotton and moss from the fields and woods of the 
Mississippi, wheat from Waterloo, and roses and 
relics from "the banks and braes of bonny Doon," 
in so short a time. But so it is ; they are all before 
me, and here I am without accident — not even the 
loss of a farthing. 

In October, 1844, a severe affliction fell upon him 
in the death of his wife, who had been for some 
time in declining health. Mrs. Brown was an amia- 
ble and affectionate woman, of retiring manners and 
rather delicate health, who found her happiness in the 
faithful discharge of her duties as a wife and mother. 
Her husband was tenderly attached to her, and she 
deserved all the love and confidence she enjoyed. 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 29 

Here it may not be inappropriate to introduce a 
portion of a letter written to his three youngest 
children, during a brief absence from home, which 
shows his kindly and playful temper, as well as the 
warm and expressive affection which marked his do- 
mestic relations. 

Washington, January 28, 1843. 

My dear Children,' — I wrote a letter from this 
place last summer to your brothers and now I shall 
try to write something to you. Last Tuesday , I 
wrote to your mother and gave her some account 
of my journey up to that time. On Thursday I 
left Philadelphia on the railroad for Baltimore and 
Washington. The weather was fine, and has been 
during all my journey. The ride through Pennsyl- 
vania and Delaware was very pleasant, though not 
new to me, as I have been over the ground many 
times before 

Here I have been about selling books and looking 
at the curiosities, &c. From the western part of the 
Capitol you can see the Potomac River far down — 
almost to Mount Vernon, where Washington lived, 
and where his tomb is. You also have a fine view of 
Alexandria and Georgetown as well as Washington 
City. The weather is very warm here and the ne- 
groes are ploughing in the fields. Sometimes I have 
counted ten or twelve all driving their horses and 
ploughs round a great field. They are very merry, 
and sing and laugh as loud as a fish-horn. 



30 LIF E OF JAMES BROWN. 

In the market are plenty of deer, duck, and fish ; 
also spinach, sweet potatoes, &c, and the little 
negroes bring- mocking-birds in abundance. They 
bring their chickens alive. One negro woman had 
half a dozen cackling hens in one hand, and a baby 
almost as big as John Murray, and as black as the 
shiniest blacking, in the other, and cried who '11 buy ] 
I dont know which she meant to sell, but I thought 
I would not buy the baby because your mother said, 
some time ago, she had enough of them. 

This afternoon I had to go from the Treasury 
Office to the Capitol ; so, as I was tired, I asked a 
negro coachman what he would carry me for. " Oh, 
Massa," he said, "for two levies," (twenty-five cents.) 
"That's too much," I said, "it is hard times." "Oh, 
Massa," he said, "hard times for poor nigger, but 
Massa, he no hard times for you. You neber see 
hard times nor you neber will ; you dont look like 
him." So I had to give him his two levies. 

There are rows of carriages all down the great 
street, and as a great many of them have little to 
do, the drivers, all negroes, have a plenty of fun. 
They sing queer negro songs, and I suppose by their 
laughing, tell very funny stories. They are very polite 
to the ladies. Several of them met this morning in 
front of our hotel and made more bows and curtesies 
than your dancing parties make in a whole evening", 
though all of them had either baskets of marketing 
or something else in their hands. 

To-morrow morning, if it does not storm badly, I 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 31 

shall go back to Philadelphia, and on Monday hope 
to be in New York, where I shall have to stay a 
day or two, and then shall come home, where I hope 
to be on Thursday or Friday. 

Your affectionate father, 

James Brown. 

In 1845, Mr. Brown made a second visit to Eu- 
rope, leaving home in the steamer of April first, and 
returning in that of July nineteenth. This was the 
only occasion on which he was entirely alone during 
these foreign excursions. To relieve the irksome- 
ness of the solitude which was always distasteful 
to his genial and social nature, he kept an ample 
journal of his movements and observations, some 
extracts from which are here appended. It is an 
unstudied record of his daily life, hastily jotted down 
in such brief intervals as he could snatch from his 
many engagements and occupations ; but it will in- 
terest his friends alike from the ease and animation 
of the style, and from the unconscious revelations 
which it makes of his own amiable and kindly nature. 

April 14<th, 1845. Took cars for London. The 
day was stormy and cold, and the country showed 
few marks of spring. Even the Vale of Aylesbury 
looked gloomy and cheerless. Arrived at Old Lon- 
don Coffee House, at six o'clock, p. m., being nine 
hours from Liverpool, a distance of two hundred and 
ten miles. The road is much of the distance uneven, 



32 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

and on the whole appears not so good as our best 
roads. 

15th. Breakfasted in the stall where, seventy-five 
years ago, Franklin usually took his meals, and dis- 
cussed with Strahan the then growing troubles with 
the mother country. There is a permanency about 
things here that does not exist with us. What 
stall in America will be found "unimproved" seventy- 
five years hence, or has remained so that length of 
time ] 

21st. Took tea and supped with Pickering, the 
celebrated publisher, in Piccadilly. Saw a large col- 
lection of Burns's manuscript poems ; amongst others 
the original of "Mary in Heaven," "Auld Lang 
Syne," and " Bruce's Address ; " also a copy of the 
first edition (1785) of his poems. Mr. Pickering 
is an enthusiast in his profession, to which he is 
most devoted. He has done more for the advance- 
ment of the printing art, and the dissemination of 
the best class of English literature, than any other 
man alive. He lives over his shop, as is the habit 
of some of the wealthiest tradesmen here. We sat 
at the table, and drank Old Port, and talked of old 
books, till nearly two o'clock. Mr. Pickering under- 
stands the value of both. This was a "red-letter day." 

25th. Called on several of the trade, and also on 
Mr. Rogers, the poet, at the request of Mr. Moxon. 
He received me very cordially, and opened his most 
curious collection of paintings and curiosities to my 
inspection. He has, amongst other rare things, the 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. gg 

original contract of Milton with Symmons, for the 
sale of Paradise Lost, for £5, and the first edition 
of that work. Spent two hours in the Library, then 
returned to the drawing-room and was introduced to 
Mr. Wordsworth the poet, who is on a visit to Mr. 
Rogers. He had a long conversation with us, — 
asked after Pennsylvania, in which he is interested, 
as his relatives hold a large amount of her bonds. 
Invited us to visit him at Rydal Mount. Told us 
not to follow the example of many of our country- 
men, and pass our time in the frivolities of Paris, 
and the ruins of Italy, to the neglect of our father- 
land. I told him that we did not intend to do so, 
that I preferred to know the people of England to 
any other object. He then said that he was glad 
his advice was not needed by us ; that he thought 
it a poor way to go abroad to learn German meta- 
physics, which could be as well learned at home ; 
but the study of man must be made on the spot. 
I told him also that I first published his poems in 
America. He remembered the edition, and said he 
had the copy I sent to him. Mr. Rogers made 
us promise to breakfast with him on Monday, and 
we then took our leave. 

28 th, Breakfasted at nine o'clock, with Mr. 
Rogers, according to appointment. Mr. R. delighted 
us with his literary anecdotes of the last sixty years. 
Showed us numerous autographs of Dryden, Pope, 
Goldsmith, Sheridan, &c. He takes a warm interest 

in America, — remembers his father's decided friend- 
3 



34 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

ship for the colonies when the war of the Revolution 
broke out. The Recorder, his father's friend, when 
he heard of the battle of Lexington, went into mourn- 
ing, and the Master of Ordnance at the Tower gave 
up his place, worth £1,000 a year, rather than ship 
guns to America, to be used against us. Mr. Rogers 
directed our attention to Dryden's house, and Milton's 
garden. He is now eighty-one years old — hale and 
cheerful. 

May 5 th. Went to the Tower — once a prison 
of state, now a museum of curiosities and arms. 
There is a complete series of arms, from about 900, 
down to the present time, arranged by Sir Samuel 
Meyrick, in a most beautiful manner. Horses and 
horsemen, knights, esquires, yeomanry, — all dressed 
and armed according to the times in which they lived. 
Many of the kings so mounted, are likenesses as 
well in person as armor. In another apartment 
we were shown the various instruments of torture, 
those venerable arguments for the spread of faith 
and the advancement of truth. The axe used in 
the execution of Lady Jane Grey, Anne Boleyn, 
and the Countess of Salisbury, is here. No English- 
man could be found who would act as executioner 
to Lady Jane Grey, and a Frenchman was sent for, 
for the purpose. He was left-handed, and the axe 
was made expressly for his use. The block is here 
too, on which the Scottish lords were beheaded in 
the time of the Pretender (1745). The seams on 
it, which the axe-man made, when he struck through 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. S5 

the neck, are deep, and show with what zeal he did 
his work. Here is the little prison-room, with walls 
eighteen feet thick, where Sir Walter Raleigh was 
confined for twelve years. 

11th. Breakfasted with Mr. Vertue, and then 
took railroad and steamboat to Gravesend, twenty 
miles, to visit Colonel William and Major James 
Burns, sons of the poet. After an agreeable ride 
down the river, the shores of which are highly cul- 
tivated, and often ornamented with fine country seats, 
we arrived at Gravesend at one o'clock. Called on 
Messrs. Burns, whom we found at home, and pleased 
with our visit. The daughter of James, (the one 
pictured with a daisy in her hand, standing by the 
side of her grandmother,) is a very intelligent and 
pretty Scottish lassie, and strongly resembles her 
grandfather. She talked with much interest of the 
poet. Her father, (James) the youngest son of 
Burns, has no resemblance in person or mind to 
the poet: William, on the contrary, resembles him 
strongly in person and expression. His face is what 
would be called a perfect likeness. He appeared 
under some disadvantage, being ill, but his conversa- 
tion was animated, and his eye showed the original 
fire. He manifested a lively interest in his father's 
fame in America, which country he intimated he 
might visit. Both these gentlemen are retired offi- 
cers from the East India Company's service, and 
have both passed thirty-two years at or near Madras. 
I left them with a melancholy feeling that it was the 



36 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

last time I should ever see a living* representative 
of the greatest poet since Shakespeare. 

13th. Went with Mr. Pickering to Hampstead, 
to hear the nightingales in " Caen Wood," and was 
gratified with a full concert. The note is very much 
like that of the ferruginous thrush, but less varied, 
and not so loud. It is very quick and lively, and not 
as I expected, slow and pensive. So much for im- 
pressions from poets. We had a fine moon, and 
remained in the wood listening to the warblers till 
after nine o'clock. Then walked through such lanes 
as are to be found only in England, to Highstead. 
Passed the cottage where Steele wrote his Essays, 
and which is pictured in Drake's Essays at Hamp- 
stead, — and Coleridge's residence (Mr. Gillman's) 
at Highstead. On the whole, had a delightful ram- 
ble, with a most intelligent and kind-hearted man, 
and returned to his house in Piccadilly, at ten. 
Supped with him, talking over literary anecdotes. 

June 4<th. Went to St. Denis to hear the organ. 
I am no musician, but I am sure it was played 
with surpassing skill. The imitation of a tremen- 
dous storm was perfect. The first grumbling of 
the thunder in the distance, its nearer approach, and 
finally the awful bursting of the whole storm, thun- 
der, rain and hail, was as frightful as any reality 
could be. A gentleman sitting near me, uncon- 
sciously grasped his umbrella, and was in the act of 
handing it to a lady, when he woke from his dream, 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. g^ 

and was sensible of the deception. I am glad that 
I have witnessed so impressive a scene. On my way- 
back to town, bought some sabots, or wooden shoes. 
The woman who sold them expressed her surprise 
that sabots were not worn in so cold a country as 
America, — said she had no idea that we were so 
much behind in the arts of life, and expressed her 
belief that those bought by me would be greedily 
copied. 

*Jth. The Belgian country over which I passed, 
is highly cultivated — to a remarkable extent by the 
spade, and the seed sown in drills, instead of broad- 
cast. Neither of these methods can be practised 
except when labor is very low. Much of the heav- 
iest labor is done here by women, who seem to be 
treated more like beasts of burden, than the men of 
the same rank. I saw this morning two women 
just beginning to spade a lot, of I should think four 
acres, and I could hardly conceive a more discour- 
aging prospect, the progress of the labor is so slow. 
Three or four of the lords of creation sat near with 
their long, dirty beards, smoking, and observing the 
work go on. Yesterday, I passed a man and woman 
returning from the day's labor in the field, with 
the tools, and the man sat in the handcart, which 
the woman dragged, or rather shoved ! 

12th. Leipsic is a nice city, but remarkable for 
little except its University. The principal building 
is very plain, without any pretensions to the pictu- 
resque. In the evening, went with Mr. B. Tauch- 



38 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

nitz, and Dr. Fluegel, to Mr. T.'s country-house, or 
castle, (as it is in magnitude,) about four miles out of 
town. Mr. Tauchnitz lives in a very expensive 
way, and is decidedly wealthy. He has a very inter- 
esting family. His house is surrounded by water, 
(a branch of the Elbe,) and single forest trees, with 
gardens, and every thing belonging to a large landed 
estate in this country. Passed a pleasant evening. 
Both Mr. and Mrs. Tauchnitz speak English. Our 
supper would have surprised a New England Teeto- 
taller. In the first place, the servant presented me 
with what I supposed was a plate of soup, but 
which I found to my surprise was quite another 
thing. It was a plate of Hock wine, sweetened and 
spiced, and with bits of toast floating on it, resem- 
bling, in all but the taste, a soup-maigre. It was de- 
licious. Then followed pigeons, fowls, &c, &c, with 
a constant flow of delicious wines, sweetmeats, and a 
long list of delicacies, which I did not venture upon. 

20t7i. Rejoiced to be once more in Old England 
amongst a people that can talk, and that have always 
received me as an old friend. Looked about for 
lodgings, but could find none that I would occupy. 
The London Coffee House, so long the resort of 
Americans, is dark, dirty, and ill-attended. Inquired 
of my friend William Smith, bookseller, 113 Fleet 
Street, who told me there were fine rooms at Stoke 
Newington, that I could obtain, belonging to a " very 
decent person." As it was only four miles out of 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 39 

town, and the communication constant by omnibus, 
I decided to go and look at them. Accordingly at 
evening he accompanied me, and I was agreeably 
surprised to find myself (willy-nilly) his guest. He 
said he was alone, having no children, and having 
lately lost his wife, and should feel obliged if I 
would remain with him, as long as I staid in London. 
Of course, I could not resist such an invitation. 

22nd. Walked with Mr. Smith over the village 
of Stoke Newington. It is an extremely pleasant vil- 
lage, having Highbury, Hampstead, Tottenham, Clap- 
ton, and Islington, as boundaries. It is quite in the 
country, and the gardens and villas of the Londoners 
are scattered in the rich farms and orchards of the 
cultivators. The New River, which supplies a portion 
of London with water, runs through the village, and 
the river Lea, which was one of Walton's haunts, 
runs for some distance parallel with it, in the neigh- 
boring town of Clapton. This village seems to have 
been the favorite resort of authors. Goldsmith lived 
near it, and wrote his Vicar in a house near the 
one I occupy. Dr. Watts lived and died here, and 
his chapel is now used as a lecture room. Priestley, 
too, preached here. De Foe's house is still in fine 
repair, and indicates a thrifty and opulent proprietor, 
as De Foe is said to have been when he resided 
here. 

July 6 th, Sunday. Went by railroad to Slough, 
and then walked through the largest and finest 
wheat fields to Stoke Pogis church, the burial-place 



40 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

of the poet Gray. It was here that he took his 
hints chiefly for his Elegy. It is a spot of unequal- 
led beauty, — approached only by foot-paths, — stands 
in a crescent of groves in the grounds of Mr. Penn, 
a descendant of William Penn, who has erected a 
statue to Gray, in another part of his grounds. The 
yew trees still shade the graves, " in many a moul- 
dering heap," and the ivy still literally covers the 
little, but singularly beautiful church. I heard ser- 
vice in the church ; the music was fine, and the 
sermon dull and sensible. The congregation was 
almost entirely of rustics, and it required a poet 
indeed to imagine that any " inglorious Milton," or 
"village Hampden," were amongst them. They were 
the most wooden-headed looking persons I have ever 
seen. A rural tablet, outside the church, tells that 
Gray is buried in the tomb hard by, with his mother. 
I looked in vain for any other distinguished name 
both in the church and church-yard. Every image, 
except the " elms, " recorded or alluded to in the 
Elegy, may be traced in this spot. A bell surmounts 
the tower. The church and grounds are included in 
the farm of Mr. Penn, and the lowing herds feed 
on the very borders of the " yard." The " plough- 
man," and the "owl," are at home in the fields, — 
dark woods are to be seen on all sides, and the 
" rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep " beneath many 
a heaving turf, in this little home of the dead, cov- 
ered with deep green moss. If I had seen nothing 
more, this day's pilgrimage is worth a journey to 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 41 

England. After lingering- around this lovely spot, 
until the shades of evening began to close in, I took 
a private way through long fields of beans in blossom, 
and wheat, oats, and barley, back to the station, and 
returned to the house of my hospitable friend at 
Stoke Newington. 

17th. Went to Prescott, to see Mr. Nuttall at 
Nutgrove. Found him beautifully situated on his 
estates, and pleased to see me. Went over his 
grounds, and saw his tenantry, who are mostly old 
men who have occupied under his uncle for many 
years. They are small farmers, occupying from thirty 
to sixty acres ; and the rents seemed to me low, but 
they pay all taxes, and those are monstrous. For 
sixty acres of good grass and grain land the net 
rent to Mr. Nuttall was only .£70. In the morning 
went to Knowesly Park, the seat of Earl Derby, 
with Mr. Nuttall, — a delightful walk through wheat 
and bean fields — beans in full bloom. Innumerable 
private ways are kept open in England, through 
fields, parks, &c. One might almost travel over the 
whole country, without setting his foot on a carriage- 
way. Earl Derby's seat is surrounded by an im- 
mense grove of fine oaks, the whole ranged by deer, 
and covered with hares and other game. His fruits 
are of the finest varieties, and the gardens of great 
extent. I tasted the grapes, peaches, and nectarines, 
all of course protected by glass, but all of fine flavor. 
His gardener estimated that there were two thousand 
pine-apples in various stages of growth in the hot- 



42 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

houses. He has also a fine and very extensive avi- 
ary, and many rare quadrupeds. Returned to Mr. 
Nuttall's, and after dinner visited his orchards and 
gooseberry plantations. One of the last covered six 
acres, and every bush seemed crowded with fruit to 
its greatest capacity. We supposed there were two 
hundred barrels of fruit nearly fit to be gathered. 

July 19th. At twelve o'clock was under way 
for Boston, in the Cambria steamer. I am so for- 
tunate as to have for a room-mate Dr. Sharp, who 
accompanied me over. 

The passage home was as agreeable as a pleasant 
companion and fine weather could make it. It was 
monotonous, but the quickest passage ever made from 
Europe to America, — being only eleven days and 
four hours, including twenty hours delay by visiting 
Halifax. Arrived at my house at nine, after an ab- 
sence of four months, lacking two days. In all this 
time, and having travelled at least ten thousand miles, 
I have not met with the slightest accident, or unpleas- 
ant circumstance. I have been everywhere received 
with the kindest attention, and most liberal hospital- 
ity, and not in a single instance have I met with a 
rude action or an unkind word. 

In April, 1846, Mr. Brown was married to Miss 
Mary Derby Hobbs, daughter of Dr. Ebenezer Hobbs 
of Waltham ; a connection in every way fortunate ; 
securing to himself the society and conversation of an 
intelligent and sympathizing companion, and to his 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 43 

younger children that affectionate maternal care of 
which they stood in need; and increasing his social 
resources by his adoption into a most amiable and 
cultivated family circle. 

In 1847, Mr. Brown, accompanied by his wife, 
visited Europe ; leaving home on the first day of 
April, and returning on the first day of September. 
They remained in London till the early part of June, 
and then went to Paris, to which a fortnight was 
given. Another fortnight was spent in an excursion 
through Belgium and the Rhine country. They then 
returned to London, where Mr. Brown completed 
his business engagements ; after which a tour was 
made through Scotland and the north of England, 
before embarking for home. 

In 184*9, Mr. and Mrs. Brown again visited 
Europe, accompanied by Dr. and Mrs. Hobbs ; 
leaving home on the twenty-first day of March, and 
returning at the close of August. Their tour com- 
prised London and Paris, the English lake country, 
parts of Scotland, Germany, and Switzerland. They 
had proposed to visit Italy also, but this was pre- 
vented by an illness of Mr. Brown which detained 
them three weeks in London. 

While in Switzerland, a brief separation of the 
travelling party took place at Lucerne, Mr. Brown 
and Dr. Hobbs going over the Brunig Pass, and re- 
joining their friends at Interlaken ; it being deemed 
unadvisable for the ladies, one of whom was ill, to 
tempt the fatigue of a mountain excursion. While 



44 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

at Grindelwald Mr. Brown wrote an account of their 
journey, to his wife, the greater part of which is 
here copied. 

Grindelwald, June 26, Tuesday. 

My dear Wife, — To compensate you as far as 
I can for the loss of seeing with me, the last two 
days, I will attempt some description of our little 
journey from Lucerne. We left, as you know, in a 
row-boat, with our guide Francis, a most intelligent 
and obliging Swiss, for Alpnach, about nine miles up 
the lake. Our guide amused us with his shrewd 
remarks, queer stories, and broken English. He 
was particularly severe on the priest at Lucerne, 
who blessed the boat that went out on Sunday with 
music — you recollect it — that is, blessed it for that 
trip, for which Francis says he had money. Well, 
the boat had just left the wharf when one of the 
men went into the engine-room for something, when 
the engineer let go the engine and killed him ! 
Now, Francis says the priest has to say a long list 
of prayers gratis for the poor boatman whom his 
blessing did not save. 

The shores of the lake are pretty on this side, 
but without the grandeur of the Altorf trip which 
we made on Saturday. We called at the inn at 
Alpnach, and took some bread, honey, and wine, 
whilst Francis hired a carriage to take us to Lun- 
gern, fifteen miles, where we dined pretty well. We 
then took horses for the Brunig Pass, the Bernese 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 45 

Oberland and Meyringen. In passing- from Alpnach 
to Lungern we saw the opening made into the lake 
by which a large portion of its waters were drawn 
off, and its beauty spoiled. The road was so pre- 
cipitous we were obliged to walk several miles, and 
through quite a smart shower. The passage from 
Lungern to Meyringen was very grand and varied, 
giving us at different times views of the valley of 
the Aar, Lake Lucerne, and the Brunig mountains. 
On the whole, we thought it inferior to the ride up the 
Righi, but it was at times frightfully grand. Parts 
of it were hard and difficult for the traveller, and 
we were obliged to walk a good deal. In looking 
over the books at the stopping-places, we saw but 
few ladies' names ; our guide says the journey should 
only be made by ladies in chairs. We had a nice 
supper of tea, strawberries and cream ! and went early 
to bed, intending to be off at six in the morning. 
I took a bath, as the guide said it would take the 
tired out of us. Slept well, and in the morning 
went down to the dining-room, where the usual stores 
of carved wooden ware were offered. I bought 
none, but I found a very nice herbarium at ten francs, 
and another at three francs, both of which I secured 
for you. Agreeably to our orders, every thing was 
ready at six to start — we had before taken some 
coffee, eggs and strawberries, — and we took to our 
horses, and after passing a mile or more out of the 
straggling village, began to rise on the great Schei- 
deck, by the side of the Wetterhorn, Wellhorn, the 



46 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

Black Forest, and the upper and lower Grindelwald 
glacier. We had not rode above a mile, when our 
attention was fixed by the grandeur of the scene 
around us. The valley of the Aar, the village of 
Meyringen, and the thousand little waterfalls that 
come down like silver threads, give to the scene a 
surpassing beauty. We now left our horses, and took 
a road for a mile or so impracticable for them, and 
went to the fall of the Reichenbach, one of rare 
beauty. We saw it from a small house built to 
protect observers from the spray. The sun shone 
its brightest, and I think I never witnessed a more 
truly beautiful spectacle, a complete rainbow formed 
in the spray, and really within our reach. This fall is 
about one hundred feet high, but the river falls in 
its course two thousand, and we followed it to its 
source in the Black Forest glacier, and the neighbor- 
ing Alpine snows. After leaving the fall, the way 
became very steep, and on the edge of the mountain, 
the shelf which served for a road, being for a great 
distance hardly more than three feet in width. We 
now passed on through scenes of majestic grandeur, 
which I cannot attempt to describe. Waterfalls on 
all sides, rushing streams and deafening rapids, moun- 
tains far above the clouds, capped with snow, and 
distant glaciers, all presenting new views at every 
angle of the path. The chalets of the shepherds 
were scattered through the valleys, and numerous 
flocks of goats and cattle, tinkling their bells, served 
to beautify a scene oppressive by its solemn majesty. 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 4tf 

At first we would call each other's attention to the 
more striking scenes, but we soon neglected this, 
each being absorbed in his own reflections. I felt 
something of the confused feeling that I do when 
visiting a gallery of fine paintings without time to 
examine. The scene shifted so fast that an object 
that I could have stood before and wondered at for 
days had no time to make a distinct impression. 
As we began to descend, we passed the little ham- 
let of Rosenlaui, where there is a fine waterfall, and 
sulphur bath. We now came in full view of the 
upper Grindelwald glacier, stretched out into the 
valley before us. The bad state of the road com- 
pelled us to leave our horses for nearly two hours, 
and walk over morasses and steep banks. At about 
ten we reached the borders of the glacier, and in 
company with a peasant who cut steps for us in the 
ice, went on to it. It is truly an astonishing spec- 
tacle. Full of frightful crevices, some of them of 
great depth, of the most solid and transparent ice, 
that bids defiance to sun and rain, rising to an un- 
known height, and spreading to an almost unknown 
extent, the glacier is still surrounded to within a few 
feet of its margin with delicate flowers and fruit- 
trees, — the apple, pear, cherry, &c. in full fruit, 
within five minutes walk of the lower Grindelwald. 
We reached our inn tired and hungry, feelings that 
we had forgotten until then in the excitement of the 
scenes we were passing through. We enjoyed our 
dinner with the nice Alpine strawberries, and after a 



48 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

short siesta, I am writing these recollections. Before 
finishing, I must tell you that our window, literally au 
premier i looks out on the immense Wetterhorn, rising 
like a great gothic ruin some eight thousand feet on 
my left, — the lower Grindelwald with its silver peak, 
the Schreckhorn covered with snow of dazzling 
whiteness, sometimes enveloped in clouds, and then 
as they melt away seeming to rest on the cerulean 
blue behind, far up in the heavens, more than thir- 
teen thousand feet from me, but as distinct as the 
glaciers at my feet ; this makes the centre and the 
background. On the right the Eigher, or Giant, a 
rude mass of brown stone, naked, except where a 
few lines of snow relieve his savage grandeur, rises 
to an immense height, and seems to support his fair 
and brilliant neighbor the Jungfrau. Imagine all this 
within twenty minutes walk, (I mean of course their 
bases,) and I think you will agree with me that such a 
scene is not witnessed more than once in any life. 

Some further account of this tour is contained in 
a letter from Paris, addressed to his eldest daughter, 
a portion of which is here given. 

Paris, May 28, 1849. 
My dear Mary, — Your mother has given such 
full accounts of our travels in her letters, that I 
cannot add much that will interest you. I must 
expect that almost all the value my letter can have to 
you, will be in the fact that it is mine. Since I 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 4,9 

saw you, as you know, I have been sick for a long 
time, and when I have been well my business has 
been so pressing that I have had but little time to 
write letters. I hope now to be a better correspond- 
ent. We have been in Paris now a week, and 
have seen many of its curiosities. Few of them of 
course were new to your mother or me, but they 
are so beautiful that they very well bear seeing twice. 
Mr. and Mrs. Bossange, and other of our friends, 
have been very polite to us, and contributed very 
much to make our journey pleasant. We live in 
fine rooms overlooking the beautiful gardens of the 
Tuileries and the palace of the king (when there 
is a king.) This garden, or rather park, — for it is 
as thickly covered, for the most part, with trees as 
our grounds around the pond, — is filled every fine 
day with thousands of people who sit there and 
read and smoke or sew according to their various 
tastes. Children of all ages, from a month old to 
eighty years, come there for fine air and various 
games. In the street, between our rooms and this 
garden, a thousand interesting scenes are constantly 
passing. Now a troop of horse, with flourish of 
trumpets, go clattering over the pavements, whilst 
near them busy chiffoniers are collecting from the 
refuse of the streets their foul and scanty fare. Then 
a regiment of infantry, with fine music, pass before 
us on their way to the Place du Carrousel, or to the 
Champ de Mars. Omnibuses, carriages, crowds of 
gentlemen and ladies, beggars, grisettes, vagabond 
4 



50 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

looking soldiers in undress, market-women with their 
whole wealth on their head, or en crochet, on their 
hacks, vary and fill up the always shifting and never 
tiresome scene. 

Every thing here is scenic, — picturesque. The old 
houses, five or six stories high, with their Norman 
capped windows and turreted chimneys, and standing 
so near each other that in many streets you cannot 
drive a chaise between them. The lamp-posts are 
covered with allegorical emblems, and surmounted in 
many instances with elaborately carved statues. At 
every turn, you meet with palaces or churches or 
monuments, some of them dating before the Christiar 
Era, and others the work of the Emperor Napoleon, 
on which the labors of the most celebrated men have 
been bestowed, and the wealth of nations compelled 
by conquests to contribute to these works as well as 
to the resources of the kingdom of France. Even 
the trees are trimmed to represent Gothic arches and 
other architectural forms. You may walk for miles 
under the shade of elms and beeches shaped in this 
manner, and so perfectly done, that you doubt whether 
you are not in the solemn aisle of some great cathe- 
dral. In Pere le Chaise, with the nightingales for 
choristers, and the service for the dead going on in 
the midst, the deception is complete. 

We visited this celebrated cemetery last Sunday 
after hearing high mass at the cathedral church of 
Notre Dame. It is filled, even crowded, with monu- 
ments ; some of them in fine taste and of exquisite 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 51 

workmanship. But it wants the natural beauties 
which will always give Mount Auburn a beautiful 
preeminence over all other burial-places. It is not 
well kept either, and has many monuments that give 
evidence of a perverted taste, which should never 
have been admitted. Near the gate where you enter, 
is the monument of the celebrated lovers and more 
celebrated scholars, Abelard and Heloise ; the term 
scholar only applies to the first, except what his fame 
has reflected on his pupil. The monument, removed 
from a church, destroyed I believe in some of the 
commotions of the first French Revolution, is the 
most interesting one in the grounds, both for its 
architectural ornament and historical associations. 
But as a whole the cemetery is full of interest, for 
it contains a large portion of the great men of the 
nation — scholars, civilians, marshals, &c, &c. ; and 
it commands from its high grounds the finest view 
of Paris and the surrounding country that can be 
had anywhere. You will see that I have referred 
to several things in this letter, that you will wish 
to consult books in order to understand. The great 
Cyclopaedia in the library will help you in any diffi- 
culty. You are now enjoying your (too 1) long 
vacation. You must not neglect to read regularly 
from some good book which Mr. Emerson will 
recommend — or let the thimble I gave you rust for 
want of use. 

Your affectionate father, 

James Brown, 
Miss M. A. E. Brown. 



52 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

In the summer of 1852, Mr. Brown again visited 
Europe, accompanied by his second son, Mr. Edward 
Wyeth Brown. They sailed from Boston in the 
packet-ship Daniel Webster, on the seventh day of 
July, and were absent exactly twelve weeks. A 
large portion of this time was spent in London and 
Paris, and devoted to business engagements ; but a 
rapid glance was given to some of the most inter- 
esting points in England and Scotland. 

The next summer, Mr. Brown made his fifth and 
last voyage to Europe. He was accompanied by his 
wife, his eldest daughter, and Miss Eliza Hobbs, a 
sister of Mrs. Brown. They left home on the thir- 
teenth of April, and returned early in September. 
They saw Paris, Switzerland, the Rhine country, 
and the English and Scotch lakes ; for the sake of 
the young ladies, who. had never been in Europe 
before, going over ground already somewhat famil- 
iar to Mr. and Mrs. Brown. Mr. Brown's busi- 
ness arrangements kept him in London a consid- 
erable time ; during which period the ladies of the 
party lived in the immediate neighborhood, at such 
distance as to permit Mr. Brown to join them after 
his daily work was over. During the hours that 
he was busy in London, they made short excursions 
to the interesting spots in the vicinity of the great 
metropolis, such as Hampton Court, Kew, Finchley, 
Hammersmith, and Norwood. One pleasant week 
was passed at Richmond ; and the long, silvery twi- 
lights of the early English summer were spent in 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 53 

rowing up and down the Thames, a river so rich 
in natural beauty, and so crowded with historical 
associations. 

Having thus presented a continuous narrative of 
Mr. Brown's successive visits to Europe, as a sort 
of distinct chapter in his experience, we now go 
back a few years, and resume our sketch of his 
domestic and business life at home. 

As Mr. Brown's partnership with Mr. Little was 
the crown and consummation of his business career, 
so the building of his house, and the establishment 
of his family, at Watertown, in 1840, was an event 
of similar moment in his domestic and private life. 
The feeling of attachment which gathers round the 
spot in which we dwell, depends much upon the 
fact whether we look upon it as a permanent, or 
only a temporary, home. A man will often live long 
in a house, his children will grow up around him in 
it, and yet his affections will never take deep root 
there, because he is looking forward to something 
better. His imagination, his hopes, his thoughts, are 
dwelling upon some point not yet reached. He says 
to himself that at some future period, when his 
means are greater or his occupations less, he will 
rear a house which shall be and have all that he 
desires, — which shall realize his visions of a home, 
where he shall be content to rest. It often happens 
that the dream never comes to pass — that year 
after year slips by, and the final summons reaches 
him in the midst of fruitless wishes and hopes post- 



54 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

poned. But it is not always so. The airy man- 
sion is sometimes fixed upon the firm earth, and 
the husband and the father gathers his household 
round him in a home from which his feet shall 
wander no more on earth, and where he may per- 
mit his affections to strike into the soil, because he 
means that no hand but that of death shall uproot 
them. 

And this assuredly was Mr. Brown's sentiment 
in regard to the spot in which he lived during 
the last fourteen years of his life. He had pre- 
viously resided, as the head of a family, in four 
different houses; two in Cambridge, one in West 
Cambridge, and one in Boston; but when he had 
settled himself in this home, he felt that he had 
made the last of his earthly removals; that here he 
had found his haven of rest in which his anchor 
was dropped and his sail furled. The house itself 
is a wooden structure, of moderate size, in its ex- 
terior making no great architectural pretensions, 
and in its situation happily blending with the ob- 
jects and scenery in its immediate vicinity. It 
stands in Water town, near the line which di- 
vides it from West Cambridge, to the south of 
Wellington Hill, just where the lower spurs of this 
beautiful elevation subside, by gentle gradations, into 
the broad plain which clasps the waters of Fresh 
Pond with its belt of verdure. It faces nearly east. 
A lawn, of about an acre in extent, lies between it 
and the road. To the north — between Wellington 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 55 

Hill and the house — but only a few feet distant 
from the latter — is a thick grove of trees, mostly 
elms and maples — the natural growth of the soil. 
They overshadow, and with their thick-woven canopy 
of leaves, keep dark, amid the blaze of noon, a 
steep gorge, or chasm, at the bottom of which runs 
a clear stream, mingling its liquid voice with the 
whisper of the overhanging trees. The rocky bed, 
along which the waters trip and sing, has been ar- 
tificially enlarged, and exotic trees have been planted 
among those of native growth ; but the essential 
character of the spot has not been changed by the 
hand of improvement. The brook is near enough 
to the house to be heard in the pauses of speech 
during the stillness of a summer's day, but not 
near enough to be obtrusive in its claims. In the 
dust and drought of August, it mocks the ear with 
a delusive sound of rain; and at all times it falls 
upon the sense like an audible pulse of nature, ever 
in movement and yet ever the same. 

This stream passes under the road which runs in 
front of the house and reappears in a broader and 
gentler form upon the other side. Here it flows, in 
shape like a bended bow, through an ample meadow 
of the richest verdure, which, in its soft slopes and 
in the marks of finished cultivation which it pre- 
sents, recalls some of the characteristic features of 
English scenery. To the left, the view is closed 
in by the hills of Medford; and directly in front, 
at the distance of about three miles, rises the 



56 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

rounded elevation upon which the flaring 1 red brick 
of Tufts's College certainly sheds no grace. The 
white houses and spires of Medford, West Cam- 
bridge, and Somerville, stand clearly shown in the 
bright and smokeless air; but Boston is hidden by 
the rising ground on the right. Directly in front, 
a broad, green plain is unrolled to the eye — a 
waveless sea of verdure — richly cultivated, and 
thickly sprinkled with fruit-bearing and ornamental 
trees. 

The environs of Boston, beautiful as they are, 
can show few scenes more beautiful than the site 
of Mr. Brown's house. It stands in what may be 
called the border land between the region of agri- 
culture and the region of horticulture, strictly speak- 
ing. On the one side, we see trim gardens, orna- 
mented pleasure grounds, smooth-shaven lawns, fair 
houses, and all the indications of that wealth which 
is drawn from the city and expended in the grati- 
fication of rural tastes ; and on the other are plain 
farm-houses and farms, which have come down from 
father to son, orchards, pastures, and grain fields — 
a district not yet whirled into the vortex of the me- 
tropolis, where land is still sold by the acre and not 
by the foot, and where old manners and primitive 
habits are yet found. Thus, the grace of nature and 
the grace of art are shed over the landscape. And 
it has the further advantage of being thickly wooded 
with trees, some of native growth and some planted 
by the hand of man. In early summer, when the 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 57 

grass is bright and fresh, and the foliage wears its 
hue of " glad, light green," - — when the vault of 
heaven rings and overflows with the joyous notes 
of the bobolink and the liquid warble of the 
wood-thrush — when the breeze seems to caress the 
trees that bend to its touch, and the flying clouds 
dapple the broad plain with their shadows — the 
whole scene is stamped with rich and glowing 
beauty ; not grand, not strictly picturesque, — but 
made up of those soft and gentle elements that are 
equally fitted to refresh a wearied spirit and soothe 
a saddened heart. 

When fairly settled in his new home, Mr. Brown 
began to indulge himself in the gratification of two 
tastes, which had previously been kept somewhat 
restrained by the circumstances of his life ; and 
these were his love of land and his love of books. 
Born with a love of nature, and having a strong 
relish for agricultural pursuits, his purchases of land 
kept steady pace with the increase of his substance. 
One small farm after another was gradually added 
to his estate ; until at his death he was the owner 
of about one hundred and forty acres x in the 
vicinity of his residence. This homestead farm, if 
it may be so called, stretched along the slopes and 
over the upland of Wellington Hill — so well known 
for the superb view which it commands. It com- 

1 Besides these, he owned a parcel of land, of about eleven acres, 
on the banks of Fresh Pond, and several lots and houses in Cam- 
bridge. 



58 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

prised wood land, arable land, and pasture land. Some 
of it was what farmers call rough, and presented 
rather a discouraging- aspect to an unprofessional 
eye ; but much of it was fertile, and some of it was 
well situated for building lots. Even the most un- 
favorable portions were of a kind to invite and 
reward the application of skill and capital. 

In the cultivation of his land, Mr. Brown found 
a constant occupation and interest during the latter 
years of his life. If as a mere pecuniary invest- 
ment, he might have employed his capital better, 
he could not have disposed of it in a way to yield 
larger returns of happiness and health. His agri- 
cultural occupations supplied him with regular and 
attractive employment during the hours he rescued 
from business, so that no moment ever hung heavy 
upon his hands. He had gained some practical 
knowledge of farming in his boyhood, which he now 
revived ; and he also made himself acquainted with 
the best methods which experience and observation 
had recorded in print. His farm was not one of 
those showy, model establishments, which require 
a fortune to carry it on ; nor was it conducted ex- 
actly as it would have been done by a sharp New 
England farmer, who looked at nothing but the 
main chance. It was managed in a liberal spirit; 
more with reference to prospective benefit than pres- 
ent gain ; but there was no extravagant expenditure, 
no whimsical outlay, no fantastic indulgence of un- 
profitable tastes. 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 59 

Among other things, he took pains to provide 
himself with specimens of the best cattle that could 
be procured, both of foreign and domestic breed ; 
and in these he took great delight. His kindly 
nature led him to become attached to every living 
thing that was put under his charge, and his four- 
footed dependants shared in this feeling. His Al- 
derneys and Durhams were objects of constant and 
growing interest to him. Their arrival was im- 
patiently waited and eagerly welcomed ; he made 
them almost daily visits, to examine their condition 
and watch their progress ; he took pleasure in show- 
ing them to his friends, and in helping ignorant 
eyes to discern their peculiar points of excellence. 
The expression of his countenance, as he looked 
upon them, seemed to be asking them if they were 
contented in their new home, and if he could do any 
more than he had already done to make them com- 
fortable. 

The last few years of Mr. Brown's life do not 
present much for his biographer to record. His 
visits to Europe, and occasional journeys to other 
parts of our own country, were the only interrup- 
tions to the uniform channel in which his days 
glided by. Happy, it has been said, is the nation 
whose history is dull ; happy, it may be added, is 
the man whose life is uneventful. Certainly the lot 
of humanity can hardly permit one to be more happy 
than was Mr. Brown during the last ten years of 
his sojourn upon earth. His business was, of course, 



60 L 1 FE OF JAMES BROWN. 

his primal and paramount interest; it was the main- 
spring of his mind, calling forth all its energies, and 
allowing no faculty to gather rust by inaction. But 
while his business occupied, it never absorbed or 
exhausted, him ; it never left him in such a state of 
prostration as to require the sting of some sharp 
excitement to rouse his languid spirit. He did not 
bring back to his home a brain so worn out by long- 
continued toil as to be incapable of any thing but 
absolute repose. His days were wisely divided and 
happily ordered. He paid to duty its just tribute, 
but from the hours of every day something was 
reserved for the domestic affections, something for 
the claims of health, something for the cultivation 
of the mind, something for the gratification of pure 
and elevating tastes. His life turned upon two 
poles ; one was his place of business, and the other 
was his home, his library, and his farm — and it 
turned harmoniously, because it was proportionably 
distributed between the two. And this double inter- 
est contributed to the health of both body and mind. 
The management of his farm, the overseeing of his 
laborers, the interest he took in his cattle and the 
growth of his crops, gave him an object for long 
walks and drives, and prevented his falling into 
those habits of bodily inaction which are so apt to 
creep over men in our country after middle life. 
And the hours not devoted to out-of-door employ- 
ments were happily filled up by his books and the 
society of his family and friends. Thus, without 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 51 

hurry, without feverish excitement — and equally 
without apathy and inaction — his life glided by, 
passing from resort to retirement, as the stream 
steals from sunshine to shade. His business was 
securely prosperous, an affectionate family was grow- 
ing up around him, he was rich in friends, his influ- 
ence in the community was increasing, his past was 
without reproach, and no cloud seemed to rest upon 
his future. 

Mr. Brown was — as the Apostle would have a 
bishop to be — "a lover of hospitality and a lover 
of good men." His sympathies were generous and 
comprehensive, but by no means without discrimina- 
tion and preference. He valued men for their per- 
sonal qualities, and not for their accidental advan- 
tages ; and his simple self-respect inspired a natural 
independence of spirit, which had nothing to assume 
and nothing to suppress. He had many friends 
among the favored classes — among those who had 
drawn prizes in the lottery of life — who were in 
the enjoyment of wealth, intellectual superiority, 
social distinction, wide-spread influence — but these 
friendships did not in the least cool his heart to- 
wards those who had none of these things to com- 
mend them, but who had earned his confidence and 
won his affection by their personal worth, their sub- 
stantial services, or their attachment to him. He 
was of a truly catholic spirit ; and though holding 
decided opinions upon the controverted points of the 
day, he did not limit his regards to those who 



62 LI F E OF JAMES BROWN. 

thought as he did, or insist that his friends should 
be also his partisans. Under his benignant and rec- 
onciling influence, men of discordant views met to- 
gether and learned from his example lessons of 
charity and tolerance. His guests will ever recall 
with melancholy pleasure the hours they spent under 
his roof. His smile of welcome, his outstretched 
hand of greeting, will live forever in their memo- 
ries. Had an artist sought an embodied type of the 
spirit of hospitality, he might have found it in him, 
as he stood at his door to receive a friend that he 
loved. When presiding over his generous but never 
ostentatious board, his cordial manner and beaming 
countenance diffused around him an atmosphere of 
happiness which " outdid the meats, outdid the frolic 
wine." The sunshine of his spirit thawed all the 
icy chains of coldness and reserve ; and nowhere 
did men appear to better advantage — nowhere did 
they bring forth more of their intellectual resources 
— than at the table of a man who used no other 
art of drawing out than the magic of a warm heart 
and a genial nature. 

Mr. Brown's love of books was a native taste, 
like his love of nature and of rural pursuits ; and 
as soon as his means permitted, he began to indulge 
himself in the purchase of them. This was espec- 
ially the case after he had removed to Watertown, 
and felt himself settled for life. So long as a man 
is a wanderer upon the earth, he will hardly buy 
books on a large scale ; for a lover of books does 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. Qg 

not like to have them exposed to the mischances of 
conveyance from one place to another. Scholars are 
often discontented with the smallness of their libra- 
ries ; but they will find much comfort therein when 
they wish to move them. Mr. Brown's business 
relations gave him peculiar facilities in the selection 
of his library; and from his large purchases for the 
public he generally reserved some choice specimens 
for his own collection. Year by year, this collection 
increased, and at his death it numbered about twenty- 
five hundred volumes. This statement of its amount, 
however, gives a very imperfect notion of its value ; 
for it had been slowly gathered together with great 
judgment and taste, and it comprised many costly 
and many rare works. It was confined, with few 
exceptions, to the English language ; and it may 
be described, in one word, by saying that it con- 
tained the best editions of the best books. All the 
great lights of English literature were here, as well 
as the best products of our own ; and in a form 
and garb worthy of their claims. Mr. Brown was 
a little touched with that disease of bibliomania of 
which Dr. Dibdin writes in a vein of such pleasant 
exaggeration. He liked tall copies, fine impressions, 
ample margins ; and was nice and fastidious in bind- 
ing. Mingled with those works, the value of which 
is as universally recognized as that of gold and sil- 
ver, were many chosen for their rarity ; which the 
common reader would pass by without heeding, but 
which would make the eyes of a bibliomaniac to 



64 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

sparkle with joy, and his hands to tremble with 
eager longing*. 

The library contained some very valuable works 
in Natural History, especially Ornithology, always 
a favorite pursuit with Mr. Brown. Among these 
were Cuvier's Histoire Naturelle, Hardwicke's Indian 
Zoology, Lambert's " Genus Pinus," Poiteau's Po- 
mologie Franchise, Gray's Genera of Birds, and the 
magnificent publications of Gould on Ornithology, in 
sixteen folio volumes. These were all devised by 
him to the Boston Society of Natural History. 
There were also fine copies of Wilson, and of the 
quarto Audubon ; a complete set of Dr. Dibdin's 
works, and of the bibliographical productions of Sir 
Egerton Brydges ; a copy of Neale's Views of Eng- 
lish Seats ; a fine set of the Publications of the 
Percy Society ; Scott's editions of Dryden and 
Swift ; the Works of Ritson ; Watt's Bibliotheca 
Britannica ; Lodge's Portraits ; and Renouard's Works 
on the early printers, Aldus and Stephanus. 

Mr. Brown was a warm admirer of the genius 
of Burns, and read with the liveliest interest every 
thing connected with his life and fortunes. He 
made it a point to visit every spot that was in any 
way associated with his name, and we have seen 
with what animated pleasure he records his meeting 
with the poet's sons. His collection of the editions 
of Burns's poems, and of works illustrating his life 
and genius, could not, to say the least, be paralleled 
by any other single library in this country. He 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 65 

had every edition, of any note and value, which had 
appeared in England or Scotland; including that of 
Kilmarnock, in 1786, in which this splendid lumi- 
nary of song first broke upon the admiring gaze of 
his countrymen, and that of Edinburgh, in 1787. 
He had the copy of Currie's first edition, which 
had belonged to Clarinda, (Mrs. McLehose,) with 
whom the poet, under the name of Sylvan der, car- 
ried on a correspondence, in a style of extravagant, 
falsetto sentiment, hardly worthy of the honors of 
publication, which it has recently attained. Another 
copy of Currie in his possession is profusely illus- 
trated with autographs, views of places, and por- 
traits of persons mentioned in Burns's letters and 
poems — making a work of great interest to every 
admirer of the poet's genius, the materials of which 
must have been collected with a patient assiduity 
which nothing but hearty admiration could have in- 
spired, 

Mr. Brown's library was not an assemblage of 
books ranged in handsome cases to please the eye, 
— to be looked at merely, and not handled, — 
but it was for daily use. To his singularly truth- 
ful nature, it would have seemed a little disingenuous 
to buy books which he never meant to read; and it 
is not too much to say, that there was not a volume 
in his library with the contents of which he was not 
more or less acquainted. His day was not so wholly 
given to his business, his farm, his family, and his 
friends, as not to leave some time for reading; and 



66 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

his residence in the country, while it cut him off 
from some social privileges and from some attrac- 
tive forms of amusement, left him long, unbroken 
hours, especially in the winter season, for this occu- 
pation, such as the hurry of a city life rarely af- 
fords. 

Such was Mr. Brown's life at the age of fifty- 
four ; such were his sources of usefulness and of 
happiness. The bounty of Providence had been 
showered upon him with a most liberal hand ; and 
it was acknowledged with a proportionably grateful 
spirit. Possessed of an ample fortune, rich in 
friends, happy in his domestic relations, occupied but 
not absorbed by his business, enjoying a daily in- 
creasing confidence and respect — he had won, with 
no exhausting struggle, all the best prizes of life. 
And he had known enough of privation and sacri- 
fice to enjoy with keen yet temperate relish the 
blessings of his lot. The flavor of prosperity was 
heightened by the remembrance of difficulties sub- 
dued and obstacles overcome. The delight he took 
in aiding others was enhanced by his recollection of 
a period when he was in a condition to receive but 
not to bestow favors. He had the happiness, in the 
closing years of his life, to see his two eldest sons 
established in business, and settled in homes of their 
own ; and the birth of a grandchild, while it served 
to remind him of the lapse of time, by the begin- 
ning of a new generation, touched his heart with 
the sense of that new relation, which seems to have 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 67 

the sweetness and tenderness of the parental tie, 
without its anxiety and responsibility. 

And to his friends — even those who knew him 
most intimately and saw him most frequently — 
there seemed to be no reason why this happy, use- 
ful, and generous life should not be prolonged to a 
good old age. No preparatory stroke of warning 
was sounded, to give them note of the coming sep- 
aration. His frame and face betokened more than 
ordinary constitutional vigor, and were those of a 
man in whom the tide of life had not begun to 
turn. The casual stranger would have seen in him 
the promise of that full measure of three score and 
ten years which is allotted to man. But it was not 
so ordained; and he was called from an earthly to 
a heavenly home, in the prime of life, and in the 
fulness of his powers — taken away from plans un- 
ripened, and unblown hopes. 

Some three or four years before his death, he 
had suffered from an attack of diabetes ; a disease 
which so affects the constitution, that the subject of 
it is constantly exposed to fatal effects from causes 
which but slightly disturb the system when in 
health. This illness was not known to his most 
intimate friends, or even to all the members of his 
family ; but he took medical advice upon his case, 
both here and in Europe, and the remedies pre- 
scribed for him gave him material relief, but, as it 
appeared, did not effect an entire cure, 

About a year before his death, on a slippery day, 



68 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

he fell at the railroad station, and slid down several 
steps, sustaining some heavy bruises. This accident 
brought on a recurrence of his former illness, and 
he was detained at home a few days ; but he did 
not think it of sufficient importance to take medical 
advice. 

In January, 1855, a large carbuncle broke out 
upon him, just below the shoulder-blade, which much 
reduced his strength, and was very slow in healing ; 
and the physician 1 who attended him found his for- 
mer disease unabated. He was kept at home sev- 
eral weeks by this illness, and compelled to post- 
pone the journey to Washington which he was 
accustomed to take in the winter season. But in 
time he recovered ; his strength and flesh returned ; 
he seemed to have gained his usual health; and he 
felt himself well enough to go to Washington, where 
he was called by a matter of business. 

Upon his return home, he was attacked by a 
sharp recurrence of his old disease. Dr. Hodgdon 
was called to him on Saturday, March 3, and found 
him in much suffering. The fatigue of his journey 
had probably irritated those parts of the system 
which had been injured by the fall of the previous 
year, and much inflammation was the result. 

Leeches were applied, and other means tried, but 
they gave only temporary relief. Tuesday night and 
Wednesday were periods of great suffering. On 

1 Dr. Hodgdon, of West Cambridge. 



LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 69 

Thursday, he was not in great pain, but his strength 
was fast declining. On Friday, his brain began to 
be affected by his disease ; and during that night 
he was in a state of high fever, and slightly delir- 
ious. On Saturday, he became insensible, sank rap- 
idly through the day, and breathed his last at about 
five in the evening. 

His illness had been so short, that the news of 
his death fell with startling surprise upon the com- 
munity ; and the expressions which it called forth 
were marked with the sense of an unexpected, as 
well as a great loss. His funeral took place on 
Tuesday, March 13, and the number and character 
of those who were present bore touching testimony 
to the wide circle of affection, esteem, and confi- 
dence which had gathered round his life. 

The foregoing brief sketch comprises a delinea- 
tion of Mr. Brown's leading traits of character, and 
of those mental and moral qualities to which his 
success in life was due, and by which he laid up 
such treasures in the hearts of his friends. An 
obituary notice, written by the author of this bio- 
graphy, appeared in the Boston Daily Advertiser of 
March £0. It was prepared under the fresh sense 
of a great personal loss, and bears obvious marks of 
the feeling from which it flowed ; but the author, 
looking at it after an interval of more than a year, 
sees in it no extravagance or overstatement, but only 
a just tribute to a strong, pure, noble, and affection- 



70 LIFE OF JAMES BROWN. 

ate nature. It is here reproduced in its original 
form. The writer's eyes grow dim at the pictures 
and memories which it recalls ; but mingled with the 
sense of an ever-present loss is a feeling of grati- 
tude that he has been permitted to lay an offering 
upon the grave of his friend which may help to 
keep his memory green in the hearts of those who 
knew him, and justify their love to those who knew 
him not. 



OBITUARY NOTICE. 



FROM THE BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER OF MARCH 20, 1855. 



OBITUARY NOTICE. 



When a man like the late Mr. James Brown 
dies, it is due to the esteem and affection with which 
he was regarded by his friends, that his eminent 
worth should be set forth with somewhat more of 
fulness and distinctness than belongs to most men 
whose lives were so private as his. Few men not 
clothed with official trusts — not set in conspicuous 
stations — whose way of life was so far removed 
from the glare of public applause — could have left, 
by their death, a wider chasm in our community, 
or will be more lovingly remembered and more ten- 
derly mourned. And the love and honor which he 
enjoyed while living, and which have followed him 
to his grave and beyond his grave, were fairly 
earned by a rare combination of fine and high qual- 
ities. 

At the close of a man's life, we naturally and 
instinctively first consider the place which he held in 
the profession, or employment, to which the strength 
of his days was given. He who fails in the calling 



74 



OBITUARY NOTICE 



of his choice must needs decline in our regards, 
unless such failure be made up by the display of 
uncommon virtues or capacities outside of it. Mr. 
Brown was a publisher and bookseller, and, as such, 
eminently successful. The position which he held 
in his profession at the time of his death, and the 
wide influence he exerted, would alone have made 
him a marked man. His whole career was honor- 
able to him, and encouraging to those who start as 
he did. He was born in Acton, about the begin- 
ning of the present century, of a virtuous but poor 
household ; and his childhood was passed under in- 
fluences favorable to the growth of the character, 
but not to the cultivation of the mind. His book 
education was not beyond that which is the common 
heritage of every New England boy, but he was 
well trained in the school of circumstances. He 
began life with a vigorous constitution, a resolute 
will, a cheerful spirit, and an affectionate heart. 
His time, up to the dawn of manhood, was passed 
in modest toils, which earned for him no more 
than a decent subsistence. And here it may be 
remarked, that, to his intimate friends, the feeling 
with which Mr. Brown looked back upon these days 
of struggle and privation, formed an interesting trait 
in his character. He recalled them with a modest 
pride, mixed with a certain grateful tenderness. He 
never attempted to conceal any event in his life, 
and yet he was free from the subtle vanity which 
delights to make proclamation of difficulties subdued 



OF JAMES BROWN. 75 

and disadvantages overcome. His boyhood was a 
happy period, after all ; especially, linked as it was 
by ties of such "natural piety" to the prosperity of 
his maturer years. 

While yet quite young, and residing in Cam- 
bridge, he was invited by the late Mr. William Hil- 
liard to enter his service, as salesman and assist- 
ant generally. He once expressed to the writer of 
this notice his surprise and pleasure at this proposi- 
tion, made to him at an accidental meeting in the 
street, and remarked upon his utter ignorance of the 
duties he was called upon to discharge. But he 
bent his powers to the task committed to him, and 
soon learned his work ; and from this point his pro- 
gress in business was rapid and uniform. He soon 
began to be known as a man diligent in his calling, 
and sagacious and successful in his enterprises ; and 
a continually widening sphere of action was opened 
to him. He early took his place as a man of influ- 
ence and consideration in the trade, so called, invit- 
ing and rewarding the largest confidence. For many 
years past, he has been a member of the widely- 
known bookselling and publishing firm of Little, 
Brown and Company ; and it is doing no injustice 
to any living man to say, that much of the position 
held and power wielded by this eminent house was 
due to his personal qualities. And as a man of 
business merely, his endowments and accomplish- 
ments were of a high order. He was sagacious, 
liberal, penetrating, and wise ; he saw far, and he 



76 OBITUARY NOTICE 

saw truly; he was always prompt, and never in a 
hurry ; his speculations and enterprises were always 
well timed and resolutely pursued. His knowledge 
of men was instinctive, and he rarely or never made 
a mistake in his estimate of them. He perfectly 
understood his own interests, and stoutly maintained 
them, and no man could either overreach or over- 
hear him. And then he was probity itself. He 
abhorred any thing mean, or shuffling, or equivocat- 
ing. What he said, he stood by ; and everybody 
who knew any thing about him knew this, so that 
no word of his ever fell to the ground. The foun- 
dations of his nature were laid in frankness and 
simplicity, and these flowed out into his business. 
The stranger, who saw his open, cordial counte- 
nance for the first time, felt that he was in the 
presence of an honest man, and that the air of 
truth breathed from him. An Arab in the desert 
would have trusted such a face with uncounted dia- 
monds. 

His great success in business was mainly owing 
to his instinctive and unerring judgment. Few men 
who have published so many books have made so 
few mistakes. He understood the literary wants of 
the country, and was ready with the right work at 
the right time. And it was the same in the choice 
of the extensive stock which he kept on hand for 
sale. He had a considerable amount of bibliograph- 
ical knowledge, which was turned to good practical 
account in this way. He has more than once re- 



OF JAMES BROWN. *~ffi 

turned from Europe with a very large collection, 
over which a desponding man might well shake 
his head; hut the books never cumbered his shelves 
long. He would walk through the sales-rooms of 
London or Paris, and tell at a glance what would 
suit the literary meridian of home. All book-buyers 
and book-collectors in this neighborhood — and to 
our honor be it said they are numerous — will find 
his loss irreparable. He never forgot or neglected 
a commission, however trifling ; and if a rare or 
curious work were wanted, he would be sure to find 
it if it were anywhere to be found. 

His taste was as good as his judgment was 
sound. He was just enough touched with the bib- 
liomania of which Dr. Dibdin so pleasantly writes, 
to make book buying and book collecting a labor 
of love. He had a quick eye for tall copies, fine 
bindings, wide margins, and fair type ; and this 
good taste stamped itself upon his business. He 
had a just pride in the external aspect of the books 
which he published ; and the great improvement 
which has taken place within the last twenty years 
in New England, in the style and appearance of 
books, is due to him more than to any other man. 

The house to which he belonged, as is well 
known, has been for many years largely engaged 
in the publication and sale of law books ; a branch 
of their business to the success of which Mr. Brown 
essentially contributed. He had the same sagacious 
comprehension of what was wanted in this depart- 



^8 OBITUARY NOTICE 

ment as in that of miscellaneous literature. He 
saw that in this class of books, as in others, the 
true rule of success was moderate profits upon large 
sales ; and thus, while his law books were gotten 
up in better style than the profession had been ac- 
customed to, while his scale of remuneration to au- 
thors and editors was more liberal than had been 
before known, his prices were lower, a far wider 
range of sale was secured, and the highest anticipa- 
tions of success were met. 

The whole community was a gainer, directly and 
indirectly, by the enterprising and liberal spirit in 
which Mr. Brown conducted his business, by the 
energies which he wielded, and the direction in which 
they were moved. He made good books more 
abundant and more accessible, and thus created and 
diffused a taste for them, which is in itself a sub- 
stantial service to the public. He also helped to 
elevate the growing profession of authorship ; not 
only by his generous way of dealing with writers, 
but by his courteous and considerate bearing to- 
wards them personally. He was not only just and 
prompt, but liberal and friendly. He never wounded 
the feelings of the most sensitive among them by 
even a thoughtless word. 

He made more than one visit to Europe, in the 
way of his business ; and there left the most favor- 
able impression upon all who met him. His credit 
there, in the technical sense of the term, was unlim- 
ited ; and he secured the confidence and esteem of 



OF JAMES BROWN. 79 

many persons, whose regard is not lightly won. 
He was an honorable representative of the country, 
and any American abroad might have pointed to 
him with pride as a specimen of what might be 
done and gained among us by a man's unaided 
energies. Into whatever society he was thrown, he 
maintained the same simple self-respect, and the 
same modest manliness of manner which marked 
him at home. His bearing was ever that of a true 
man and a well-bred gentleman ; never claiming 
more than was due to him, never yielding any thing 
of what was due to him. 

All that has thus far been said of Mr. Brown 
• might be true, without his having been so loved 
and without his being so mourned. It is no very 
rare thing for a poor boy in our country to become 
a prosperous man, to accumulate a large property, 
and to have a commanding influence in the business 
world. He might have been a sagacious, a respect- 
able, an estimable man, even a just and a true man, 
and yet not a lovable man. The liberal scale on 
which he did business might have been the result 
of a far-seeing thrift. Even his courteous manner 
might have been the easy growth of a smooth tem- 
perament, the cold and politic varnish of an essen- 
tially selfish nature. Men who have fought their 
way from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to dis- 
tinction, are apt to retain some marks and scars of 
the conflict. They are apt to be hard, narrow, rest- 
less, and grasping, even if not sordid and unscrupu- 



80 OBITUARY NOTICE 

lous. But Mr. Brown's title to the hearts of his 
friends was founded upon those qualities which lay 
outside of his calling, and had no other relation to 
his prosperity than that this enabled him to display 
them on a larger scale and in a more conspicuous 
sphere. He was a remarkable instance of a man 
who had achieved great success without paying the 
price at which it is usually bought. It seemed 
hardly possible that one so energetic and strong- 
minded should have so much sweetness, gentleness, 
and affectionateness ; but it was so. They were as 
salient and conspicuous traits as were his sagacity, 
his judgment, his enterprise, and his perseverance. 
Their charm was the greater, from their contrast 
with his resolute will and vigorous understanding. 
Few men had more feminine tenderness and soft- 
ness than he. These qualities could be heard in 
the quick changes of his voice, and seen in the 
ready suffusion of his eye, and in the lights of ex- 
pression which passed over his countenance, and 
gave to his features all the beauty of a beautiful 
soul. His warm affections and cordial sympathies 
were not clouded by reserve or chilled by self-dis- 
trust, but they were ever prompt to reveal them- 
selves. They were deep, and at the same time 
easily moved. He greeted his familiar friends as 
if since their last meeting he had found some new 
cause to love them. It is hardly necessary to say 
that the life of such a man, blessed as he was 
with ample means, was marked by a constant sue- 



OF JAMES BROWN. gj 

cession of kind and generous acts. His bounty 
flowed out in all directions, upon every form of 
desert that came under his observation. He de- 
lighted to give, and his benefactions had all the 
charm and grace of spontaneous impulse. His char- 
ities were as natural to him as blossoms to the tree 
in spring, or fruits in autumn. And his kindness 
was as thoughtful and considerate as it was hearty. 

There was nothing neutral or indifferent in Mr. 
Brown's feelings or affections. As he had warm 
sympathies, so he had strong dislikes and antipa- 
thies. But these were founded on solid and sub- 
stantial grounds, and were not the growth of fas- 
tidious caprice. And as they were justified to his 
conscience and his reason, they were always as 
frankly expressed as were his preferences and his 
affinities. He had a vehement and intolerant scorn 
of insincerity, meanness, and treachery ; and the 
strongest expressions that his gentle nature ever 
indulged in were called forth by manifestations of 
these qualities. But even here the kindness of his 
heart interposed ; for he contented himself with an 
energetic word or two, and passed on to more ge- 
nial subjects. He never dwelt long in the region 
of dislike and distaste; and when he could not speak 
well of a man, he ceased to speak of him at all. 

A mind, a character, a heart like Mr. Brown's 
were surely formed to win large measures of re- 
spect, esteem, and love. But there was yet another 
charm in his nature, flowing from the purity and 
6 



8£ OBITUARY NOTICE 

refinement of his tastes. He was a living refutation 
of the notion, that there is any thing necessarily 
coarsening or narrowing in a life devoted to trade. 
Here was a man born in poverty, reared in priva- 
tion, the architect of his own fortunes, cut off from 
opportunities of intellectual cultivation in the form- 
ing period of life, displaying, the moment he had 
the means of indulging them, such tastes as would 
seem to be the fine growth of the choicest elements 
and the happiest influences. Pope said of Wych- 
erly that he had the nobleman look ; it might have 
been said of Mr. Brown, that he had the nobleman 
spirit. No man had a better sense of the true 
value of wealth, or ever contrived to extract from 
it a greater amount of happiness. He fixed his 
home in a region of varied and picturesque beauty, 
he gradually acquired a large and valuable farm, 
which he stocked with the choicest cattle and cul- 
tivated after the most approved methods of hus- 
bandry ; he adorned and improved his grounds, and 
called forth all their capacities of embellishment ; 
and here, in the society of his family, his friends, 
his books, and in rural employments, he found the 
purest and most elevating pleasures. And the time 
which he spent here was no meagre fragment, 
grudgingly torn from the desk and the counter, but 
a liberal measure — enough for refreshment, enough 
for repose, enough to permit the peace and love- 
liness of nature to fall upon his spirit with sooth- 
ing and elevating power. He knew his fields, his 



OF JAMES BROWN. gg 

cattle, his trees ; he watched the growth of every 
growing thing" upon his farm ; he was the friend 
and companion, as well as the father, of his chil- 
dren. 

His modest nature would have disclaimed the 
praise of scholarship, and yet he had the tastes and 
the spirit of a scholar. He was fond of books, and 
had collected a library very valuable for its extent, 
containing many rare and curious books, chosen 
with judgment and discrimination. These were not 
kept merely to look at, or to show to his educated 
friends, but they were read, comprehended, and en- 
joyed. He took especial pleasure in the poetry of 
Burns, and had gathered a large amount of mate- 
rials illustrative of the life and genius of that splen- 
did meteor of song. He had a considerable knowl- 
edge of natural history, especially ornithology ; and 
his library contained a complete collection of books 
on this subject. 

He had also a poet's love and a poet's compre- 
hension of nature. Every " dingle and dell and 
bosky bourne " of the wooded and hilly region in 
which he lived, was familiar to him, under all the 
aspects of the changing year ; in the light, glad 
green of early spring, in the rich ripeness of sum- 
mer, in the gold and purple of autumn, and in the 
winding-sheet of wintry snow. His powers of ob- 
servation were acute and practised. He knew the 
names and properties of every tree and shrub and 
flower that grew in his fields. He had no trained 



84 OBITUARY NOTICE 

ear for music, but he would stand and listen in 
rapt attention, and with suffused eyes, to the full- 
throated and deep-hearted song of the brown thrush, 
in the early summer. A fine maple, in its autumn 
red — an apple-tree, with its shower of vernal blos- 
soms — would arrest his steps and call forth expres- 
sions of admiration. There was not a latent charm 
in the broad landscape that spread around his house 
— there was not a fleeting grace thrown over it by 
the sunshine, the cloud-shadows, the rippling breezes, 
the showers of summer — which he had not noted 
and enjoyed. 

No one could be said to know Mr. Brown who 
had not seen him in his own house. No spot on 
earth deserved the sacred name of home more than 
this. Here the sun of hospitality never set. He 
received his friends as if he were an idler in the 
land, grateful to any one who would help him to 
speed the sluggish hours. No shadow of business 
ever sat upon his brow ; but his face glowed with 
the light of welcome. His greeting — the clasp of 
his hand — were as cordial as the breezes that blew 
over his hills. To see him presiding over his hos- 
pitable but never ostentatious board, was warming 
and refreshing to the heart. Under the genial in- 
fluence of his affectionate and sympathetic presence, 
the most various natures were brought into unison, 
and yielded their best tones to swell the general 
harmony of feeling. Nor had he one set of com- 
pany manners and another set for home consump- 



OF JAMES BROWN. 85 

tion. Towards the members of his own household, 
his bearing was indulgent, affectionate, and tender. 
It may be doubted whether his children ever saw a 
frown upon his brow. No heavier yoke was ever 
laid upon them than the silken cord of love. To 
all who stood to him in the relation of service or 
dependence, he was kindly, considerate, and abound- 
ing in good offices. His bounty to the poor was 
constant, ample, but always secretly bestowed. 

It is not to be wondered at that a man such as 
has been described, should have been very rich in 
friends. He had a right to be proud of his friend- 
ships; and his children have a right to be proud of 
them, now that he is gone, for they start in life 
with a large inheritance of transmitted interest. Few 
men not liberally educated, in the technical sense of 
the word — not belonging to either of the learned 
professions — not engaged in intellectual pursuits — 
have ever had so many friends among the culti- 
vated and educated classes. His list of friends 
embraced statesmen, scholars, men of science, men 
of letters — names widely and favorably known — 
who yielded to him an unconstrained and unbought 
tribute of regard and affection. They valued him 
for what he was, not for what he had. They would 
have been as much repelled by any thing like obse- 
quiousness as by ignorance or coarseness. His rela- 
tions to them were founded upon a fair interchange 
of equivalents. No man ever patronized him ; no 
man ever put on an attitude of condescension to- 



86 OBITUARY NOTICE 

wards him ; his dignity of character and the manly 
self-respect of his bearing forbade this. 

And there was another and an unconscious trib- 
ute to Mr. Brown's worth, which should not be 
forgotten in summing up his merits. His life had 
been eminently successful ; he had acquired a large 
measure of those things for which most men strug- 
gle, and many unavailingly ; he had accumulated an 
ample fortune ; he held a commanding influence in 
the world of business, and enjoyed a high social 
position — and yet no man grudged him all this. 
Everybody contemplated his prosperity with satis- 
faction ; and the reason was, that his increase of 
substance not only did not remove him further from 
his fellow-men, but brought him into nearer and 
more intimate relations with them. The more means 
he had, the more happiness he diffused. His grate- 
ful heart repaid the sunshine and the dew of pros- 
perity with a softer green of sympathy and a quicker 
growth of affection. Before good fortune so gently 
worn, envy dropt its envenomed arrows, and forgot 
to feed upon its own heart. 

And now this rich, vigorous, and happy life has 
been brought to a close. In the midst of unripened 
schemes and unfinished plans, — of enterprises that 
ran far ahead, and projects of wider sweep and 
broader range, when, in the course of nature, many 
active years seemed yet in store for him, — he has 
been called away from earth. But the spirit which 
animated his whole life forbids his friends to mingle 



OF JAMES BROWN. 87 

any bitterness in the grief which his death has called 
forth. He was a man of deep and sincere religious 
feeling, and his heart was penetrated with gratitude 
to God that he had been permitted to accomplish 
and enjoy so much. He was well aware of the 
insidious nature of the disease to which his frame 
finally yielded, and had long contemplated with a 
steady gaze the prospect of his departure. He 
was as resigned to the future as he was grateful 
for the past. His cup had been early made to run 
over with blessings, and he felt that he had no 
right to murmur if it were taken from his lips be- 
fore the full measure of days had been allotted to 
him. With gentle submission, he obeyed the sum- 
mons that called him from an earthly to a heavenly 
home ; and we, on whom the shadow of his depar- 
ture rests, should mourn him tenderly and serenely, 
mingling with our grief a sense of gratitude for a 
life so rounded and finished, so rich in action, so 
crowned with happiness. 



OBITUARY NOTICE. 



FROM THE BOSTON ATLAS OF MARCH 13, 1855- 



OBITUARY NOTICE. 



It is with no ordinary feelings of pain, surprise, 
and regret, that we announce the death of one of 
our most esteemed and valued fellow-citizens. James 
Brown, Esq., of the well-known publishing house of 
Little, Brown and Company, expired Saturday even- 
ing, at his place of residence, at the age of fifty- 
five. In the full vigor of life, in the midst of his 
usefulness and the enjoyment of all his mental and 
physical powers, he has been taken. In the large 
circle of friends and relatives, of which he was the 
cherished and honored centre, — in the larger circle of 
the community, of which he was an active and val- 
ued member, — his loss is an irreparable one, and 
the void his death leaves will long be felt and deeply 
mourned. Intelligence, enterprise, activity, benevo- 
lence, strong, clear common sense and vigorous intel- 
lect, were among the striking traits of his character. 
These traits have been faithfully portrayed by the 
pen of a sorrowing friend, 1 and leave us little to add 

1 Mr. Rufus Leighton. 



92 OBITUARY NOTICE 

besides the expression of our sincerest sympathy 
with the bereaved, who sorrow thus unexpectedly 
for the loss of one who but yesterday was among 
them in the full vigor of ripe and noble manhood, 
who so well deserved, by his constant ministration 
to the wants of others, the whole measure of their 
lavish affection. 

DEATH OF MR. JAMES BROWN. 

The announcement of the death of James Brown 
will be read with surprise and sorrow by the very 
large and widely-extended circle of those who knew 
him personally, and also by the larger number of 
others, to whom he was known only by reputation, 
through his connection with the house of Little, 
Brown and Company, of which he had been for so 
many years a member. But a few days since he 
was among us, in the full possession and enjoyment 
of all his powers, looking the very embodiment of 
sound and robust health, and apparently destined to 
add many years to his mortal life ; and he has been 
suddenly cut off in the full strength and vigor of 
manhood, having expired on Saturday evening last, 
at his residence at Wellington Hill, at the age of 
fifty-five, after a brief and painful illness. It is sel- 
dom that we behold so marked an example as this 
of the familiar household truth, that 

" In the midst of life we are in death." 

Mr. Brown was possessed of large natural abili- 



OF JAMES BROWN. Qg 

ties, and was eminently a self-made man. Like al- 
most all of those who in America have arrived at 
any desirable distinction in any department of life, 
or exercised any considerable influence, he was born 
in humble circumstances, and by his own industry, 
perseverance, and enterprise, worked his way up to 
that high social position which he had attained at 
his death, and to that eminence which he occupied 
in the pursuit he had chosen, as its acknowledged 
head and most able representative in this country. 

Energy, firmness, and promptitude were among 
his most distinguishing characteristics, and these, 
united with sterling good sense and a judgment that 
rarely erred, contributed largely to that success 
which continually marked his progress in life. In 
the finer quality of good taste, he was not lacking ; 
and the books issued by the house of which he was 
a member bear ample testimony to the exercise of 
his nice discrimination in their production. He un- 
derstood his business well, and was familiar with 
all its details ; and this may be said of him, not 
only in a mechanical but in a much higher sense ; 
for he not only had a knowledge of the market 
value and fitness of the wares in which he dealt, 
but also an intellectual appreciation of their worth. 
He was well read in general literature ; and the 
scholars of America, and those who endeavor to en- 
courage and promote a taste for healthy reading, 
are greatly indebted to him for the publication and 
wide distribution of numberless works of real excel- 



94 



OBITUARY NOTICE 



lence ; in which manner he has done a service to 
our literature and education, which it would not be 
easy to estimate. 

Mr. Brown was eminently social in his disposi- 
tion and habits, and fond of the enjoyments of 
home ; he was deeply attached to his family and 
friends, and warmly beloved by them in return. 
His cheerful face — often illuminated with a smile 
which was sunshine itself to the beholder, and which 
gave an inexpressible charm to his manner — was 
the index of his heart, which overflowed with gen- 
erous emotions. Out of the abundance which he 
had gathered, he gave liberally; but his many acts 
of charity were done without ostentation, and are 
better known to the recipients of his bounty than to 
the world at large ; heing written not before the 
public eye of men, but in that book of heaven 
wherein the good angel records the noble deeds that 
are done on earth. 

His death has created a large void in the special 
pursuit in which he was engaged, and to which he 
gave dignity and character ; in the domestic circle, 
of which he was the joy and the pride ; and in so- 
ciety at large, which he adorned by his presence 
and benefited by his influence. His loss is hardly 
less a public than a private affliction ; and while he 
will be widely mourned on this side of the Atlan- 
tic, the sad intelligence will carry sorrow to the 
other, where he had many friends, by whom he was 
respected and loved. 



OF JAMES BROWN. 95 

He had a firm reliance and trust in God, and 
though unconscious for some hours immediately pre- 
ceding his death, and not previously aware that the 
event was so near at hand, he was not unprepared 
to go, and would have yielded his spirit willingly 
and cheerfully to Him who gave it. 

In the many places of the earth where he was 
loved and cherished, and which he made glad with 
his presence, he shall be seen no more ; but God 
has taken him home to himself, to adorn the king- 
dom of heaven, and to rejoice in His love. 

" He bore him like a man ! 
And his great presence filled our eyes with joy, 
And made us love and honor him ; and though 
We may not look upon his generous face, 
Nor clasp his friendly hand in ours again, — 
Yet shall his memory blossom in our hearts, 
And be a fragrance and a beauty there." 



EXTRACT FROM A DISCOURSE 

DELIVERED IN THE UNITARIAN CHURCH AT WEST CAMBRIDGE, 
ON SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 1855. 



EXTRACT FROM A DISCOURSE 

BY THE REV. S. ABBOTT SMITH. 

At the Unitarian Church in West Cambridge, 
where Mr. Brown worshipped, the Rev. S. Abbott 
Smith, the pastor, delivered an able and interesting" 
discourse. We are indebted to a friend who was 
present for the following sketch of the closing re- 
marks : — 

Death speaks solemnly, under whatever guise he 
comes ; but there are some circumstances which 
may, at times, give additional solemnity to his mes- 
sage. 

In every community there are some marked 
men — men of enterprise, men of weighty charac- 
ter and influence. When such men die, a deeper 
feeling pervades the community. We never expect 
such men to die ; and when, at last, the change 
comes to them, as to the humblest, we stand awed. 

God's solemn voice has again sounded among us. 
Another home has been darkened with sorrow ; 
another of our number has gone to join the great 



100 EXTRACT FROM A DISCOURSE 

company of the departed. We had not expected it 
for Mm, for health seemed written on his frame ; 
and a gloom overspread every face when the sad 
tidings came that we should see him no more. 

We have lost a generous and faithful friend; our 
community has been deprived of one of its most 
enterprising and useful citizens ; and the world is 
poorer by one whole-souled, generous, cultivated man 
who has left it. 

We shall miss him from his place on the Sab- 
bath, which we seldom used to see vacant ; we shall 
miss him from the company of those who meet 
around the communion-table ; we shall miss his voice 
in our councils, and his hearty shake of the hand in 
our social gatherings. 

But this is not the lesson to you and me. He 
had been busy in many good works, and now that 
he is gone there is more for each one of us to do. 
The work must go on. We must make good his 
place. Was he generous out of the abundance with 
which God rewarded his energy 1 We must be 
more so, now that he has left us. The same calls 
for benevolence remain, and they must be met. 
Was he public-spirited and liberal % The same wor- 
thy objects still demand our help. The poor, whom 
he relieved, will still need assistance ; the good ob- 
jects he promoted still call for support. We must 
feel our individual responsibility, and pay the best 
respect to the memory of our friend, by not letting 
his good purposes fall to the ground. 



ON THE DEATH OF JAMES BROWN. 101 

We must not forget, in our sorrow for our loss, 
the great lesson God would teach us by it. Let it 
remind us of our duties, too often disregarded ; of 
the work we have to do in life, and the shortness 
of the time for accomplishing it. 

God has spoken, and may we give heed to his 
words, by being truer men ; so that when our time 
comes, we may lie down to die as peacefully as 
our departed friend, and leave on our faces the 
smile of joy with which the freed spirit gazes first 
upon the glories of heaven. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BOSTON NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



PROCEEDINGS. 



Boston, October 19, 1855. 
Mrs. James Brown-, 

Dear Madam — At the meeting of the Boston 
Society of Natural History, held on the 3d instant, 
the munificent bequest of the late lamented Mr. James 
Brown was announced to the Society. It was voted 
that a Committee be appointed, to express, however 
inadequately, in a series of resolutions, the appre- 
ciation by the Society of Mr. Brown's worth as a 
man, and their grateful sense of the liberality which 
prompted his bequest. Accordingly, a Committee 
was chosen, consisting of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, 
Professor Jeffries Wyman, and Mr. Charles K. Dil- 
laway, who reported at the succeeding meeting, on 
the 17th instant. I herewith transmit a copy of a 
portion of the records of the Society, which will 
inform you of their action in the premises. 

Accept, Madam, for myself, the assurance of my 
great respect, and believe me I am 

Most truly yours, 

S. L. Abbot, 

Corresponding Secretary B. S. N. H, 



106 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Dr. C. T. Jackson, in behalf of the Committee 
appointed to prepare appropriate resolutions, in con- 
sideration of the bequest to the Library by the late 
James Brown, and also Mrs. Brown's donation of 
the portrait of Thomas Nuttall, reported as follows, 
presenting - the accompanying resolutions : — 

Mr. President — We are called upon to deplore 
the loss of one of our • highly-valued members, a 
patron of this Society, the late James Brown, Esq., 
who died at his residence in Watertown, on Satur- 
day, March 10, at the age of fifty-five years. 

Mr. Brown was born in Acton, in this State, on 
the 19th of May, 1800, and lived, while a young 
man, in Cambridge. He was then poor ; but was 
always respected for the excellence of his character, 
and for his industry and fidelity to his employers. 
By his own industry, and intelligent labor and busi- 
ness habits, he gradually acquired so large an amount 
of property as to be able to make generous presents 
to the Library of Harvard College, and to aid in 
the advancement of many literary and humane un- 
dertakings. 

He entered into the business of publishing books, 
first in Cambridge, and subsequently in Boston ; 
where he became an active partner in the firm of 
Little & Brown, a publishing house well known 
not only in this community, but all over the Union, 
for its sterling publications and great fidelity. 



NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



107 



Mr. Brown soon took a lively interest in the 
Boston Society of Natural History, and freely con- 
tributed to its funds and to its Library ; and, by his 
active endeavors, induced others also to favor the 
Society with liberal donations. 

The rank he took in becoming a Patron of the 
Society, he always ably sustained during* his life- 
time, and bore it in remembrance in his last hours, 
as is proved by the valuable bequest which he left 
to its Library. Mr. Brown's taste for the beautiful 
is admirably exemplified in his selection of the de- 
partment of Ornithology as his favorite study ; and 
the volumes he has left to the Society in his last 
will, prove not only the excellence of his judgment 
in their selection, but also a most liberal spirit in 
the purchase of such valuable books on his favorite 
department of science. Those who knew him well 
say that he had a keen relish for the beautiful in 
nature, and that he enjoyed especially the observa- 
tion of the habits of birds ; and they attribute much 
of his cultivated taste to his devotion to one of the 
most lovely departments of Natural History. 

In his profession, he was an astute critic, in 
judging of the character and value of books ; and 
those whose opinion is entitled to respect say, that 
there are few men in the country who could have 
been more safely trusted with carte blanche in the 
selection of a good library. 

The Committee beg leave to offer the following 
resolutions : 



108 PROCEEDINGS, ETC. 

Resolved, That the Boston Society of Natural 
History is deeply sensible of the great loss it has 
met with in the decease of its eminent patron and 
benefactor, the late James Brown, Esq., to whose 
numerous donations, made during his lifetime, the 
Society has been under obligations ; as also for the 
kindly exertions often made by him, to persuade 
others to aid in the increase of the Society's means 
for the promotion of science. 

Resolved, That the Society having received from 
the Executors of the will of their late Patron a 
number of magnificent folios on Ornithology, and 
other departments of Natural History, which he had 
bequeathed to their Library, contemplate this, one 
of the last acts of his life, with sentiments of deep 
emotion and gratitude, as evincing the friendship and 
kind consideration of the testator towards the So- 
ciety, and his generous and kind appreciation of their 
wants. 

Resolved, That a copy of the above preamble and 
resolutions be transmitted to the family of the de- 
ceased ; also, 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Boston Society 
of Natural History be presented to Mrs. James 
Brown, for her generous donation of a portrait of 
the distinguished naturalist, Thomas Nuttall, 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the 
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, 
held at the house of Mr. Lawrence, 17th March, 
1855, 

Mr. Gray, the President, presiding, 

Mr. Winthrop said it was already known to most 
of the Trustees, that such of them as could be con- 
veniently notified had held an informal consultation, 
on learning the death of their late associate, James 
Brown, Esq., and had proceeded to attend his fu- 
neral on Tuesday last ; but it was fit, at this first 
stated meeting since the event occurred, the Trus- 
tees should put upon record some expression of their 
sense of the loss which had been sustained, he there- 
fore offered the following resolutions : — 

Resolved, That the Trustees of the Massachusetts 
Society for Promoting Agriculture have heard with 
unfeigned sorrow of the death of their late esteemed 
and respected associate, James Brown, Esq., whose 



112 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

connection with this Board for several years past 
has been the source of so much interest and pleas- 
ure to us all. 

Resolved, That while we cordially unite with our 
fellow-citizens, in bearing testimony to the integrity 
and liberality, the enterprise and public spirit, by 
which Mr. Brown was distinguished in other walks 
of life, we feel especially called upon to make men- 
tion of his earnest interest in the objects of this 
Society ; of his intelligent, practical, and personal 
efforts for the improvement of Agriculture. 

Resolved, That the Secretary be directed to com- 
municate the resolutions to the family of the de- 
ceased, with an assurance of our sympathy in their 
bereavement, and of our deep sense of the loss 
which has been sustained by this Society and by the 
whole community. 

These resolves were unanimously adopted, and the 
Secretary directed to have them placed upon the rec- 
ords of this Board, and to request their publication 
in the newspapers. 

A copy of the record, 

Benjamin Guild, 

Rec. Secretary of the M. S. for P. A. 



PROCEEDINGS 



TRADE SALE IN NEW YORK. 



PROCEEDINGS. 



At the Trade Sale Rooms of Messrs. Bangs, 
Brothers, & Co., of New York, which were filled 
with booksellers from all parts of the country, the 
death of Mr. James Brown, their late co-laborer, 
was announced this (Thursday) afternoon, the fifteenth 
day of March, 1855, whereupon the sale was ad- 
journed, and a meeting organized for the expression 
of sympathy with the family of the deceased, and 
with his late partners in business, the following 
gentlemen being appointed officers : — 

Mr. James Harper, of New York, President ; 
Messrs. W. A. Blanchard, H. Cowperthwait, of 
Philadelphia, C. S. Francis, of New York, Vice- 
Presidents ; J. S. Redfield, of New York, Secre- 
tary. 

The Chairman, on taking his seat, announced the 
object of the meeting in a few appropriate remarks, 
after which Mr. George P. Putnam offered the fol- 
lowing resolutions : — 

Whereas^ It has pleased the Almighty Disposer 
of events to remove from among us, by death, our 



116 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 

highly-esteemed friend and fellow-laborer, Mr. James 
Brown, publisher and bookseller of Boston, and 

Whereas i In the distinguished position so long 
and so honorably filled by our departed friend, he 
has won for himself our hearty admiration and re- 
spect as the worthy leader of the trade, preeminent 
alike for intelligent enterprise and judgment, exten- 
sive knowledge of books, uncompromising integrity, 
and uniform courtesy and kindness of heart ; there- 
fore, 

Resolved, That the booksellers and publishers from 
various parts of the United States, here assembled, 
have heard with deep and sincere regret the intelli- 
gence of the death of Mr. Brown. 

Resolved, That we respectfully tender to the fam- 
ily of our late respected associate our earnest sym- 
pathy in their affliction. 

Resolved, That we also sympathize sincerely with 
the surviving partners of the deceased in the great 
loss they have sustained — a loss which will be felt 
by our whole fraternity. 

Mr. James T. Fields, of Boston, moved the adop- 
tion of the resolutions with the following remarks: — 

It is difficult, Mr. Chairman, to speak of our 
buried friend during the first sharp agony of grief, 
and while his loss is so recent and startling. His 
cheerful smile, his cordial greeting, his ever ready 
sympathy — those " small, sweet courtesies in which 






TRADE SALE IN NEW YORK. 



117 



there is no parade " — were so lately present to us, 
that our lips almost refuse to utter how much we 
feel in this sad bereavement. Our deceased brother 
was a genuine, hearty friend. We all rejoiced in 
his prosperity, for it seemed natural and right that 
he should be happy and successful. His excellent 
qualities we all recognized. He was a man of large 
culture, modest in his pretensions, but always com- 
petent in whatever affairs engaged his attention and 
his energy. He was a merchant in the fullest and 
best sense of that term ; his sterling sense and wide 
comprehension of business matters claiming for him 
something more than the qualities of a mere buyer 
and seller. Abroad, as well as at home, he was 
extensively known and respected ; nay, more, he was 
always, wherever he was known, beloved. His char- 
ity was liberal, never ostentatious. Doing good by 
stealth seemed his vocation. While the sun of pros- 
perity warmed his own mansion, he never forgot 
those humble dwellings where poverty and want and 
hunger are constant visitors. His tastes were re- 
markably simple ; and he delighted to walk under 
the open sky, abroad in the summer fields and 
woods, gathering health and instruction in the free 
air. No one came beneath his hospitable roof, as 
many here can testify, without a sensation of unal- 
loyed pleasure in his hearty welcome. 

In that quiet home, at the close of the last week, 
at the ending of the day, he died. Tranquil, and 
without conscious suffering, he gently yielded up his 



118 PROCEEDINGS, ETC. 

spirit to the God who gave it. Those who loved 
him best were about his bedside, — his wife, his 
children, a few intimate friends. 

They watched his breathing through the day, 

His breathing soft and low, 
As in his breast the wave of life 

Kept heaving to and fro. 
Their very hopes belied their fears, 

Their fears their hopes belied ; 
They thought him dying while he slept, 

And sleeping when he died. 

So calmly passed our brother to his rest. We 
shall never see his form again on earth, but we 
shall not cease to cherish his memory with an affec- 
tionate and endearing interest. He has gone to his 
reward. Let us think of him with a cheerful re- 
liance on the goodness of God, and let us be ready 
to meet that messenger which sooner or later comes 
not unbidden to every human being. 

On motion of Mr. Lemuel Bangs, it was resolved 
that copies of the proceedings of this meeting be 
sent to the family and partners of the deceased, and 
that they be published. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BOOKSELLERS OF BOSTON. 



PROCEEDINGS 



A meeting of the Book Trade of Boston was 
called on Monday afternoon, March IS, at four 
o'clock, in the room over Messrs. Ticknor and Fields's 
store, to consider what action should be had in rela- 
tion to the death of the late James Brown, Esq., 
of the firm of Little, Brown and Company. The 
meeting was largely attended, nearly every firm in 
the city being represented. 

William D. Ticknor, Esq., was called to the chair, 
and Charles Sampson, Esq., was appointed Secretary. 

It was voted, that a committee of five be ap- 
pointed to retire and draw up resolutions expressive 
of the sense of the meeting. 

The following gentlemen were appointed : — 

Messrs. Osmyn Brewster, Charles J. Hendee, E. 
P. Tileston, William D. Swan, and William J. Rey- 
nolds. 

The Committee reported the following : — 

Whereas, we have learned, with deep and sincere 
regret, of the sudden death of our friend and co- 
laborer, Mr. James Brown, therefore 



122 PROCEEDINGS, ETC. 

Resolved, That we cherish in our memories his 
noble qualities as a man ; his reliable and steadfast 
integrity ; his firm and conscientious purpose ; his 
devoted and affectionate friendship ; and his un- 
bounded liberality of heart and hand; and that in 
his death we have sustained the loss of one of the 
brightest ornaments of our profession. 

Resolved, That we sympathize with the afflicted 
family of our departed friend, and earnestly com- 
mend them to the care and blessing of Him who is 
the Father of the fatherless and the widow's God. 

Resolved, That in token of our respect for the 
deceased we will attend his funeral, and that we will 
close our places of business during the services, and 
the remainder of the day. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 

Appropriate remarks were made by Messrs. Tick- 
nor, Marvin, Jenks, Dennett, Crocker, and others, 
and the meeting dissolved. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



TRUSTEES OF THE BOSTON ATHEN^UM. 



PROCEEDINGS. 



At the regular meeting of the Trustees of the 
Boston Athenaeum, holden on Monday, March 12, 
the death of James Brown, Esq., one of the Trus- 
tees, was announced, and George Livermore, Esq., 
offered the following preamble and resolutions, which 
were unanimously adopted, and ordered to be pub- 
lished : — 

The recent and sudden death of James Brown, 
Esq., having been announced, the Trustees of the 
Boston Athenaeum are unwilling to allow this event 
to pass without some distinct expression of their 
sense of the great loss which this institution, as well 
as the literary community generally, has thereby sus- 
tained. No lengthened eulogy is needed to cause 
his life and character to be remembered with grateful 
affection. One of the most eminent booksellers and 
publishers in this country, he dignified his profession 
by adding to rare sagacity and probity an enlightened 
and disinterested regard for the cause of good learn- 



126 PROCEEDINGS, ETC. 

ing, a liberal patronage of public institutions, and a 
widely-exercised private beneficence. 

Resolved^ That the Trustees of the Boston Athe- 
naeum have received with deep sorrow the intelli- 
gence of the decease of their late respected asso- 
ciate, James Brown, Esq. 

Resolved^ That the valuable services of Mr. Brown 
as a member of this Board, his great interest in the 
welfare of the Atheneeum, his active efforts to place 
it in its present position of prosperity and useful- 
ness, and his magnificent donations of many costly 
and very valuable books, entitled him to a distin- 
guished rank among the friends and benefactors of 
this institution. 

Resolved^ That the members of this Board will 
cherish with grateful respect the memory of the de- 
ceased ; and that a copy of these resolutions, signed 
by the President and Secretary, be transmitted to 
the family of Mr, Brown. 

Attest : 

Henry M. Parker, Secretary. 



DONATION 



TO THE 



BOSTON ATHENAEUM IN 1853. 



DONATION. 

[In the spring of 1853, a liberal donation of books was made by Mr. 
Brown to the Boston Athenaeum. His letter, and the resolutions of 
the Trustees, are now printed for the first time.] 

Boston, March 12, 1853. 

My Dear Sir — I have for some time intended, 
at my earliest leisure, to make a selection of books 
as a gift to the Boston Athenseum, and now beg 
your acceptance, for that institution, of those named 
below. I have been guided, in making the selec- 
tion, by my knowledge of the wants of architects 
and naturalists, who have often found it convenient 
to consult these works in my shop, and who have 
often expressed the wish, that these and similar 
works might be found in some public collection, to 
which they could have free access. Piranesi and 
Gould, I think, cannot be consulted in any public 
collection in this country, except, perhaps, the Astor 
Library in New York. 

I ask your acceptance of these books, with my 
best wishes for the prosperity and usefulness of the 
Athenaeum, and with the assurance that I shall al- 
ways take pleasure in contributing what I may be 

9 



130 DONATION TO THE 

able to its objects. I particularly request, that you 
will not make this gift known beyond the Board of 
Directors and other officers of the institution. 
I am faithfully yours, 

James Brown. 

To George Livermore, Esq., Chairman of the Committee of the 
Library of the Boston Athenaeum. 

P. S. I take the more pleasure in making this 
donation, since it seems settled by the Directors of 
the Athenaeum, that our Library is not to be merged 
in that proposed to be collected by the city. 

[copy from the records of the secretary of the board of trustees.] 

Boston Athenaeum, March 14, 1853. 
The Library Committee perform a most agree- 
able duty in making the following Report : — 

They have received a communication from James 
Brown, Esq., one of this Board, in which he offers 
to their acceptance, for the Library of the Athe- 
naeum > a large number of costly and splendid vol- 
umes, comprising some of the most magnificent and 
important works on Antiquities, the Fine Arts, and 
Natural History, that have appeared in Europe in 
recent times, and indeed that have ever been pub- 
lished. The modesty of the donor suppresses all 
indication of their value ; but it is well known that 
the three works of Champollion, Piranesi, and 
Gould are alone worth more than one thousand dol- 



BOSTON ATHEN^UM. 131 

lars, and the whole collection of books presented 
must be estimated at more than twice that sum. 
The liberality of his views, in making the Athe- 
naeum the organ of serving the cause of learning 
and art, by this rich contribution to its stores, and 
his excellent judgment in the selection of the books, 
will best appear from the words of his letter to the 
Chairman of the Committee, accompanying the gift. 
The Committee would recommend the adoption of 
the following votes : — 

Voted, That the thanks of the Trustees be pre- 
sented to James Brown, Esq., for his munificent 
donation to the Library of the Athenaeum, une- 
qualled in value by any preceding gift of books 
since its foundation. 

Voted, That the letter of Mr. Brown, accompa- 
nying his gift, and the titles of the works presented 
by him, be copied into the records of the Trustees ; 
that thus it may be perpetuated that the Trustees 
fully recognize the enlightened zeal and liberality 
with which, in the spirit of its founders, he has 
chosen to endow this cherished institution with so 
large and rare an apparatus for serving the cause 
of science and the arts in this community. 
Respectfully submitted by 

George Livermore, \ . 

Samuel G. Ward, > . ^ 

_. \ Committee. 

Charles E. Norton. / 

The above votes were unanimously adopted. 



LETTER 



FROM 



GEORGE LIVERMORE, ESQ. 



LETTER. 

[Mr. Livermore, in transmitting to the Editor an account of the 
Donation to the Athenaeum, in March, 1853, accompanied it with the 
following letter.] 

Dana Hill, Cambridge, September 22, 1856. 

My Dear Hillard — The munificent donation of 
books to the Library of the Boston Athenaeum, made 
by Mr. Brown, in 1853, was an act as creditable 
to him as it was valuable to the institution which 
was enriched by his bounty. While Mr. Brown 
was living-, no public acknowledgment of his princely 
gift could be made ; but now that he is beyond 
the reach of that human praise which his modest 
and retiring disposition led him to shun, there can 
be no impropriety in publishing the particulars re- 
lating to it. 

Mr. Brown had previously given many very val- 
uable works to the Library, and his interest in its 
prosperity was not surpassed by that of any mem- 
ber of the Board of Trustees. When the effort 
was made to raise funds sufficient to place the Athe- 
naeum on an independent and permanent basis, Mr. 
Brown became a liberal subscriber. He was a very 



136 LETTER FROM 

useful trustee, performing the duties assigned him 
on committees with good judgment and fidelity. 
The estimate in which he was held by his associates 
appeared by the resolutions passed by them on the 
occasion of his death. 

You and I well know that Mr. Brown's connec- 
tion with the Athenseum was in accordance with the 
general tenor of his life. He was continually ren- 
dering invaluable services to public institutions and 
to private individuals, by his wise counsels and his 
timely gifts ; and all his benevolent acts were char- 
acterized by that good judgment and modesty which 
render such deeds doubly valuable. 

For nearly thirty years, I knew him in various 
relations, and every year of the acquaintance deep- 
ened my respect and affection for him. As a book- 
seller, his genial manners, good sense, and fair deal- 
ings, made him a favorite with all who visited his 
book-store ; and many a friend of literature and sci- 
ence has been drawn to that store, partly by the 
desire to enjoy half an hour's intelligent conversa- 
tion with him. The little, informal club, of which 
the late Rev. Dr. Young was the soul, met there 
daily for years, as regularly as the noon returned, 
to talk over the literary matters of the day, and to 
discuss the merits of new publications. This daily 
gathering of half a dozen persons or less might be 
called the Ante-Dinner Club ; for none of the mem- 
bers would think of dining before they had called 
on Mr. Brown, or had met each other in his rooms. 



GEORGE LIVERMORE. 



137 



Had there been a Boswell of the number, with a 
ready pen to record the racy remarks which were 
there made on authors and their works, an interest- 
ing and amusing volume might be prepared. 

In the summer of 184<5, I visited Europe in 
company with Mr. Brown. We occupied the same 
state-room during the voyage, and had lodgings 
together in London and Paris, I esteemed it a 
high privilege to have such a companion. This was 
his second visit to Europe. He had been there in 
the summer of 184<3, and had made such a favor- 
able impression on the minds of those who had made 
his acquaintance, that he was cordially received on 
his return. John Murray the elder, for whom he 
cherished the most affectionate regard, and whose 
name he gave to his youngest son, was dead ; but 
his son and successor in business was there to wel- 
come him. William Pickering and Thomas Rodd, 
those intelligent booksellers, were living, and many 
a pleasant evening was passed in company with 
them. We were together several times at the li- 
brary and the table of the venerable Samuel Rogers, 
the banker poet ; and the warm and pressing invi- 
tations for him to repeat his visits, proved how 
highly Mr. Rogers prized his intelligent conversation. 
Doubleday, the eminent entomologist, and Nuttall, 
the distinguished naturalist, highly appreciated his 
attainments as a naturalist, as well as his marked 
qualities as a genial companion and an accomplished 
gentleman. 



138 LETTER, ETC. 

It would be pleasant for me to enlarge on various 
matters, which the recollection of a long and friendly 
acquaintance with Mr. Brown revive ; but I am 
only able to express in this brief, imperfect, and 
hasty manner, my sense of the excellence of his 
character, and my enduring respect for his memory. 
With the highest regard, 

I am ever yours, 

George Livermore. 
Hon. George S. Hillard. 



H 



